This saying is often misquoted and misconstrued. People say, ‘What’s bred in
the bone will come out in the flesh’ meaning that a natural tendency cannot be
restrained (e.g. Once a liar, always a liar). This is incorrect. The real
meaning is to do with heredity: we inherit certain characteristics from our
ancestors, and those same characteristics will be inherited from us by our
descendants. Once it is ‘in the flesh’ it will never come out.

##### See also:

* Like father, like son