A friend took a newspaper and asked me to do an experiment, and I agreed.
Question 1: If you knew a woman was pregnant, and she had already given birth to 8 children, among whom 3 are deaf, 2 are blind, and 1 has mental deficiencies, and the woman herself has syphilis, would you advise her to have an abortion?
I was about to answer when my friend stopped me and asked a second question.
Question 2: Now you are to elect a leader, and your vote is critical. Here are some facts about the three candidates:
Candidate A: Has dealings with some dishonest politicians, and practices astrology. He has extramarital affairs, is a heavy smoker, and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.
Candidate B: Has been fired twice in the past, sleeps until noon, used opium in college, and drinks a large quart of whiskey every evening.
Candidate C: A decorated war hero, vegetarian, non-smoker, only occasionally drinks a little beer, has never had an extramarital affair.
Which candidate would you choose?
I wrote my answer on a piece of paper, and then my friend told me:
Candidate A is Franklin Roosevelt, Candidate B is Winston Churchill, Candidate C is Adolf Hitler.
I was stunned. My friend asked me, "Did you just choose Hitler for the people? Then which woman would you advise to have an abortion?"
I said: This question doesn't need much consideration. We have been educated in eugenics for years; after already giving birth to so many defective children, we shouldn't add to the mess. I advised her to have an abortion.
My friend told me: You just killed Beethoven; she is Beethoven's mother.
I was stunned again. My friend said: Surprised, huh? What you thought was a good answer actually killed Beethoven and created Hitler.
The final summary is: So do not think about things with predetermined values!
1. A glass of clean water becomes dirty if you add a drop of dirty water, but a glass of dirty water does not become clean because of a drop of clean water.
2. There are three things in this world that others cannot take away: the food in your stomach, the dreams in your heart, and the books in your brain.
3. Horses are prone to stumble on soft ground, and people are prone to fall for sweet talk.4. There is no distinction between tragedy and comedy in the world. If you can walk out of a tragedy, it becomes a comedy; if you indulge in comedy, it becomes a tragedy.
5. If you do not read books, traveling thousands of miles is just being a courier.
6. A needle is not sharp at both ends, and a person cannot have two sets of body and mind.
7. In the land of dung beetles, only by selling dung can one succeed.
8. Luck is when opportunity happens to collide with your effort.
9. If you are a lemon, you should not always stare at the sweetness of a watermelon.
10. Take what you get calmly, let go of what you lose peacefully, go with the flow, and contend for what is inevitable.
11. Men become bad when they have money. Yes, many men are like that. However, men who become bad when they have money wouldn't be much better even if they were poor.
12. When your neighbor plays the piano at 2 a.m., do not get annoyed. You can wake him up at 4 a.m. and tell him that you really appreciate his performance.
13. If you only wait, all that will happen is that you grow old.
14. The so-called threshold: once crossed, it becomes a doorway; if not crossed, it remains a threshold.
15. The smallest act of kindness outweighs the greatest good intention.
16. A true friend is not one with whom you have endless conversation, but one with whom you feel no awkwardness even in silence.
17. Time is the master of healing emotional wounds, but it is not an expert at solving problems.
18. It is better to regret something you did than to regret missing out.
19. Flowers do not bloom for anyone, yet they can bloom for themselves; the world does not exist for anyone, yet it can exist for itself.
20. The so-called eternal love is from youthful beauty to white hair, and from flowers blooming to flowers falling.
