Example isn’t another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.

Children, students and colleagues rarely become what we tell them to be; they become more like what they watch us do. The quote claims that instruction by words alone is hollow, and that teaching happens mainly through the visible conduct of the teacher. Lectures, rules and advice matter only as far as the teacher's own life backs them up.

The idea fits a long tradition, from Confucian ideas of the exemplary person to Aristotle's view that we become virtuous by imitating and practicing virtue. It also suits Einstein's well-known dislike of rote learning and rigid authority in schools, and his belief that curiosity is caught from people who plainly have it. Still, the attribution is doubtful. The line is widely credited to him, but I know of no solid source, and similar sayings are linked to others, such as Albert Schweitzer.

Today, a parent who wants a child to love reading could put the phone away in the evening and sit down with a book, letting the child see real absorption. That quiet habit will probably teach more than any speech about the value of reading.