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What's the meaning of the phrase 'The pot calling the kettle black'?
'The pot calling the kettle black' is a response often given when someone criticises another for a fault they also have themselves.
'The pot calling the kettle black' is one of a number of proverbial sayings that guard against hypocrisy and complacency. The context of Penn's use of the expression is one which is similar to 'He who is without sin, cast the first stone'. Another is 'you can't hold with the hare and run with the hounds.
Matthew 7:5 , in the King James Version of the Bible has:
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Shakespeare also expressed a similar notion in a line in Troilus and Cressida, 1606:
"The raven chides blackness."
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I just really, really like Shakespeare @mudkipzjm