The mote in your eye
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
A small fault noticed in someone else, especially while a greater fault of one's own is ignored. Mote is archaic outside this biblical allusion. The full mote-and-beam contrast is clearest. Regional use: Late Middle English biblical translation; now literary.
Origin
In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus contrasts a tiny mote in another person's eye with a beam in the observer's own eye. Mote meant a speck or particle, and the Wycliffe Bible uses both mote and beam in this passage. The surviving expression is often shortened, but its force depends on the whole contrast: criticism is hypocritical when the critic overlooks a much larger personal failing.
Research Sources
Variants
- The mote and the beam
Usage Examples
- Before mocking her typo, consider the mote in her eye and the beam in yours.
- His complaint about lateness was a classic case of seeing the mote in another's eye.
- The editorial spots a mote in its rival's eye while ignoring its own larger error.