Do not Judge abook by its cover" unte astory to bring out the achual meaning of the above proverb.

It’s an idiom. It’s literal origins relate to books and the relationship between their covers and their content. The suggestion is that you should not assume that because you don’t like the cover that you will not like the content. Of course, given good book design the cover ought to reflect the content quite faithfully and give a good indication of the general tone of the content. This will be conveyed in subtle ways: the colours, type of illustration or photograph, the general ‘busyness’ or spareness of the design, the typefaces used and so on. So - to some extent at least - you should be able to judge a book by its cover!

The figurative meaning is that it is better not to make quick judgements based on superficial first impressions. Although wise, this is easier said than done. It is very hard to alter a first impression, especially a negative one and they are formed incredibly quickly. Possibly this is an evolutionary legacy: quickly discerning those things that presented a threat was necessary for survival.

Nonetheless, we should probably try to resist the facile impressions that try to force themselves on us. It’s a message sometimes found in films or literature. Who can forget the ‘monstrous’ Elephant Man: physically repellent but beneath the hideous exterior a mild-mannered, cultivated man. And Sherlock Holmes noted that one of the most evil minds he ever encountered went about the world in a devastatingly beautiful body whilst one of the ugliest men he knew, who also had a less than personable manner, was a great philanthropist and a pillar of society.

In an age dominated by the charismatic, the photogenic and telegenic, by Twitter and Instagram and Blogs, it’s maybe worth remembering that the idiom can be reversed: a carefully crafted image does not necessarily indicate that someone’s opinions are of any great value