We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, or life-style.

n. Our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.

We resemble ourselves.

Liking other people is an illusion we have to cherish in ourselves if we are to live in society.

Why should we become like you? We pride ourselves on not being like you.

To be just like other persons is small credit to one, while to be unlike others is a mark of distinction.

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire

Few men, nevertheless, can have unison in many matters without being a copy of each other, if each follow his natural turn of mind. But in general a person will not wholly follow it. He loves to imitate. We often imitate the same person without perceiving it, and we neglect our own good qualities for the good qualities of others, which generally do not suit us.

Implicit-egotism effect: we are generally drawn to the things and people that most resemble us.

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.

There is a degree of resemblance between the women we love at different times; and this resemblance, though it devolves, derives from the unchanging nature of our own temperament, which is what selects them, by ruling out all those who are not likely to be both opposite and complementary to us, who cannot be relied on, that is, to gratify our sensuality and wound our heart. Such women are a product of our temperament, an inverted image or projection, a negative of our sensitivity.

The problem is that we don't believe that we are much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholic and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.

We discover that all human beings are just like us, so we are able to relate to them more easily. That generates a spirit of friendship in which there is less need to hide what we feel or what we are doing.

The fear of the other makes us resemble the other who fears us.