# Did James Joyce really  coin "If you want to know what a man thinks watch what he does"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-james-joyce-really-coin-if-you-want-to-know-what-a-man-thinks-watch-what-he-does/820676>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 3, 2018, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-james-joyce-really-coin-if-you-want-to-know-what-a-man-thinks-watch-what-he-does/820676 "2018-09-03T08:23:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-james-joyce-really-coin-if-you-want-to-know-what-a-man-thinks-watch-what-he-does/820676/1 "2018-09-03T08:23:19Z")

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Hi  
Did James Joyce coin “If you want to know what a man thinks watch what he does”? I couldn’t find it. If not Joyce, who?

I look forward to your feedback.

1. 28 minutes into to video.

Ex-ambassador: Trump is like a velociraptor

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/B4LDUenFr3s/maxresdefault.jpg "Ex-ambassador: Trump is like a velociraptor") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4LDUenFr3s)

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**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-james-joyce-really-coin-if-you-want-to-know-what-a-man-thinks-watch-what-he-does/820676/2 "2018-09-03T10:36:15Z")

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I can’t find any attribution for the quote. It is not listed in Brainy Quotes under Joyce, so probably not his.

I have seen it referred to as “an old Irish saying.”