a line I always found dumb

“stupid is as stupid does”

This was always completely nonsensical to me, until I searched on Google for help, and found the following explanations.

“Stupid is as stupid does indicates that a person is judged stupid by the stupid acts they commit.”

“It means that an intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid. You are what you do.”

All right, so now an incomprehensibility has been replaced by an utter banality: “You are what you do.”

Actually, you’re not identical with what you do, though behaving as if this were true can be a useful method for not falling prey to the verbal smokescreens of others. Focus solely on someone’s actions and you will, of course, end up with a truer picture of who they are than if you take all their words literally.

That’s exactly what a method is, in my opinion: a fruitful exaggeration. But this is also why philosophy is counter-method, or it is nothing.