Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp contrasts two human capacities: the limited power of intellect to change who we fundamentally are, and the great power of intellect to rationalize who we already are. “Character” here means ingrained habits and moral temperament; “intelligence” becomes a tool not of transformation but of self-justification. The phrase “dab hand” (expert) underscores how quickly people invent flattering labels—euphemisms—for vices, failures, or cowardice, turning defects into “quirks,” “preferences,” or “necessary compromises.” The epigram satirizes the gap between self-knowledge and self-deception: cleverness may sharpen our explanations more than our ethics, making language a cosmetic applied to weakness rather than a lever for change.