"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Once upon a time in ancient Greece, one of the acquaintances of the great Greek philosopher Socrates came running and said: “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?”
“Wait a minute”, Socrates stopped him, “Before you tell me, I would like to conduct a simple test. It is called the three sieves test.”
“Three sieves test?”
“Yes. Before you tell me anything about my student, take a moment to consider carefully what you are going to say and pour your words through special sieves.”
“The first one is the sieve of truth. Are you absolutely, without any doubt, sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”
“Well... no. Actually I heard it recently and...”
“Alright”, interrupted Socrates, “So you don’t really know if it is true or not!”