The Power Of Words

The young disciple of a wise philosopher comes to his house and says:

"Master, a friend of yours was talking about you with malevolence, they say..."

"Wait!" interrupts the master, "Have you gone through the three filters what you are going to tell me?"

"The three filters?"

"Yes." the master continued, "The first is the truth. Are you sure what you want to tell me is absolutely true?"

"No." the disciple replied, "actually I just heard about it."

"At least you have made it through the second filter," said the teacher, "which is kindness, what do you want to tell me, is it good for someone?"

"No, not really, on the contrary..."

"Ok." Replies the master, "the last filter is the need, is it necessary to let me know what is bothering you so much?"

"No, not really."

"Then," the master finally said smiling, "if it is not true, not good, not necessary, let's bury it in oblivion."

Source: Unknown origins. Sometimes attributed to Socrates

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During the 1825 Decembrist revolt in Russia, the reformist and revolutionary leader Kondraty Ryleyev was captured by the Tsar's imperial forces when the rebellion was crushed, and he was condemned to be hanged along with his comrades. When the trap was opened under their feet to end the lives of those men, the rope broke and three rebels, among them Ryleyev, simply fell to the ground remaining alive. At that time, events such this were considered as signs of providence and divinity, and the man who was saved in this way used to be pardoned. However, when Ryleyev stood up, he shouted to the crowd cheering "Russia is an unhappy country, where they don't even know how to hang you", words that infuriated the Tsar, who willing to prove otherwise, rejected the pardon and asked to proceed with new ropes. The next day Ryevyev and his comrades were again sent to the gallows, but this time they did not run with the same fate.

There are many consequences of not measuring our words and knowing when to remain silent. The words of Ryleyev were neither true, nor good, nor necessary, however, they were worth his life. Something that we usually do not take into consideration, is that the things we want to say do not always want to be heard.

The power of the word is great, and it promises to benefit those who know how to use it, as well as to harm those who don't. This does not mean that we should knot the tongue and keep our mouths closed all the time, it simply serves as a sign of the value and repercussion that our words and the things we say can have when talking, because once the words come out of our mouth, there is no way to get them back.

"It is not necessary to say everything that you think, what is necessary is to think everything that is said."
Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, aka "Quino". Mafalda's creator