"Don't talk about yourself; it will be done when you leave"
About this Quote
A blade disguised as etiquette: if you have to announce your own greatness, you probably don’t have any. Mizner’s line lands because it weaponizes social physics. Reputation is the kind of currency other people mint; self-praise is counterfeit. “Don’t talk about yourself” isn’t moral instruction so much as a con man’s diagnostic test for status. The truly powerful can afford silence because the room already knows who they are. The anxious, the ambitious, the merely loud fill the air with autobiography.
The second clause is the twist that gives it sting: “it will be done when you leave.” Not “when you arrive,” not “when you speak,” but after you’re gone - when the real, unfiltered narrative starts. It flatters the listener with a little voyeurism (people will talk!) while warning the speaker that every performance has an exit interview. Mizner implies that social judgment is inevitable and, worse, out of your control. The best you can do is behave in a way that holds up in absentia.
Context matters: Mizner was a Broadway wit and professional hustler who moved through high-society rooms where charm, discretion, and mythmaking were survival skills. In that world, talking about yourself isn’t honesty; it’s bad salesmanship. The line also anticipates modern attention culture: today we “talk about ourselves” constantly through posts and personal branding, yet the verdict still forms off-screen - in group chats, in search results, in the stories others repeat. Mizner’s cynicism is clean: you can narrate yourself all you want; you can’t edit what people say after the door closes.
The second clause is the twist that gives it sting: “it will be done when you leave.” Not “when you arrive,” not “when you speak,” but after you’re gone - when the real, unfiltered narrative starts. It flatters the listener with a little voyeurism (people will talk!) while warning the speaker that every performance has an exit interview. Mizner implies that social judgment is inevitable and, worse, out of your control. The best you can do is behave in a way that holds up in absentia.
Context matters: Mizner was a Broadway wit and professional hustler who moved through high-society rooms where charm, discretion, and mythmaking were survival skills. In that world, talking about yourself isn’t honesty; it’s bad salesmanship. The line also anticipates modern attention culture: today we “talk about ourselves” constantly through posts and personal branding, yet the verdict still forms off-screen - in group chats, in search results, in the stories others repeat. Mizner’s cynicism is clean: you can narrate yourself all you want; you can’t edit what people say after the door closes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Wilson Mizner — aphorism (attributed): "Don't talk about yourself; it will be done when you leave." |
More Quotes by Wilson
Add to List
