In ancient Greece,
Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. 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.