Triple Filter

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to be held in high esteem
because of his knowledge.
One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher 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 pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test.
'Triple filter?'
'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're going to say. That's why I call
it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth.
Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?'
'No,' the man said, 'actually I just heard about it and...'
'All right,' said Socrates.
'So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the
second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell
me about my friend something good?'
'No, on the contrary...'
'So,' Socrates continued, 'you want to tell me something bad about
him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test
though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is
what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?'
'No, not really.'
'Well', concluded Socrates, 'if what you want to tell me is neither
true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?'
This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & held in such high esteem.
Friends, use this triple filter each time you hear loose talk about
any of your friends. We teach little by what we say; we teach more by
what we do; we teach most by what we are ....