It's weakness. I can possibly show it to those I have learned to care about when the occasion calls for it but I will not show it to the populace at large to be mocked or to have it used against me.

[Yep, there's a lot of Palpatine still infecting Maul's thinking despite his best attempts to shake it off. Children absorbed a lot from their parents and Maul had done the same with his adoptive father for better or for worse. At least when it was pointed out to him it gave him cause to hesitate.]