Socrates ,widely acknowledged to be the wisest of men, was once approached by a friend with a bit of gossip about a rival philosopher. But Socrates refused to listen until he’d passed what Socrates called the triple filter test. The first filter was about truth. ‘Are you absolutely sure what you are about to tell me is true?’ he asked. His friend admitted he wasn’t absolutely sure it was. Then Socrates said: ‘Is what you are about to tell me about this man something good?’ The man shook his head. ‘ So,’ Socrates continued, ‘You want to tell me something that may be bad, even though you’re not certain it’s true? So here’s the third filter: ‘If what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me or anyone?’ They are tests we’d do well to apply to ourselves.