What are your dislikes?

I was both intrigued and amused by a quotation at the bottom of a page in my desk diary: "Character is best revealed by a person’s dislikes."

I asked myself, "Is that really true?"

Then I examined my own dislikes. What are the things I don’t like? The things that I detest most? And then I began to see that perhaps that anonymous quotation shows real insight.: "Character is best revealed by a person’s dislikes."

You might try it on yourself. What are the things you don’t like? And of these, which are the ones you detest most? The answers may indicate the kind of person you are.

Perhaps you don’t like noise? Then you must like silence. You probably have a reflective or even a contemplative bent.

Or perhaps your objection is not to all noise, but merely to loud talking and loud laughter. You would prefer sober quiet conversation. Doesn’t that indicate the kind of person you are?

You dislike people asking for favors, for "consideration", for aims? It probably means that you are self-reliant and self-respecting. You don’t like people who depend on handouts from others.

Perhaps you don’t like gaudy, showy things, loud colors, etc. It probably indicates a delicate artistic taste that likes to be unostentatious, low-key, discreet.

Perhaps you have a detestation for lazy people? It means you yourself are hardworking.

Such things and the like tend to indicate that you are a person of good character. But the inverse may also be true.

Are you a lazy person? Then obviously you dislike hard work.

Are you dishonest, a cheat, a thief? Then of course you would be afraid of careful precautions and investigations and strict accounting.

Are you lecherous, unfaithful to your spouse, promiscuous? Then you will naturally detest anything that would hamper your activities. And so on.

But there are exceptions to that anonymous quotation. There are dislikes that are common to all mankind. Which of us is in love with pain? We all dislike pain. We all dislike being humiliated. Everyone dislikes going hungry. We all dislike too much cold or too much heat. In such cases, character is revealed not by our dislikes, but by the way we react to them.

We all like success. Nobody likes failure. A person’s character is revealed not by his dislike of failure, but by his conduct in the face of failure. Or his conduct in the face of success.

Few people are fearless. We all are afraid when our lives are endangered. How we act in the face of danger marks the difference between the hero and the coward.