That’s very similar to my favorite saying, which is supposedly French:
“A man doesn’t look under the bed unless he’s hidden there himself.”
Literally, it’s saying that a man who suspects his wife of being unfaithful has probably been unfaithful himself. But I’ve discovered that the concept applies in a very wide variety of circumstances. For example, a boss who is convinced her employees are slacking off unless she keeps a constant eye on them likely did a lot of slacking off when her boss wasn’t watching, back before she was the boss.
Another good one, credited to some African tribe:
“The thief’s problem is not how to steal the chief’s trumpet, but where to blow it.”
It reminds me of that old joke about the preacher who skips church one Sunday to play golf, and he hits a hole-in-one. Gabriel asks God, “How could you let him get a hole-in-one?” and God replies, “Who’s he going to tell?”
Was it Queen Elizabeth who said, “If you have to tell people you’re a lady, you’re not”? I could reword this for the benefit of some of the teenage & 20-something men I know: “If you have to brag about what a badass you are, you’re not.”
Maybe you’re saying the same thing, but I’ve always heard this one as, “You are the cause of your own problems.” People who try to run away from their problems tend to think that those problems are all caused by outside forces, and that relocating will get them away from their problems, refusing to acknowledge that they themselves are causing the problems. I think a good modern example of this is parents who pack up their families and move from the big city to a small town because their kid is in a gang. As often as not, the kid brings his gang mindset with him to the small town and now the small town has a gang problem.