the.com/axe to grind
A grudge wearing the costume of a principle.
means To have a hidden personal or selfish motive behind an argument or action you're presenting as fair-minded.
from The popular story credits Benjamin Franklin with a tale about a stranger who flattered a boy into turning the grindstone to sharpen his axe, then left without so much as a thank-you once the blade was keen — revealing he'd wanted the favor done for free. Franklin told the anecdote to illustrate self-interested flattery, and though he probably didn't coin the phrase itself, his story is the reason 'an axe to grind' came to mean an ulterior motive dressed up as something innocent.
- origin story
- Ben Franklin tale about a man flattering him into free sharpening
- tell
- the complaint always ends with a favor
- mistaken for
- passion, but passion doesn't need vindication