Socrates, Man Of Wisdom
 
One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher, Socrates, and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?" "Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. 
"Before telling me anything, I'd like you to take a little test.  I call it the Three Filter Test."
"Three Filter Test?"
The acquaintance had never heard of   such a thing.  
 
 
"That's right," Socrates continued.  "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you are going to say."
"Okay, tell me what I am supposed to do but hurry because I just can't wait to tell you what I've heard today."
 
 
 
 
"All right, the first filter is TRUTH.  Have you made absolutely sure what you are about to tell me is the truth?" Socrates asked. "No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..." "So you don't know if it's really true or not.  Well, let's go on."    
 
 
"Let's try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS.  Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?" questioned Socrates. "No, on the contrary...."
"So, you want to tell me something bad about him but you're not sure that it is true."
 
 
 
 
The fellow looked a little flustered but took heart as Socrates went on.  "You may still pass the test for there is one more filter, it is the filter of USEFULNESS.  Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?
"No, not really," the man mumbled as shame and embarrassment began to spread across his face and his animated movements had fled completely.  
 
 
Socrates placed an arm around the man's shoulders, kindly bent his head and softly spoke these words. 
"If what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, then maybe you shouldn't tell it to me at all


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