When Theodore Roosevelt(美????) was in the White House,he confessed that if he could be right 75 percent of the time,he would reach the highest measure of his expectation. If that was the hightest rating that one of the most distinguished men of the twentieth century could hope to obtain,what about you and me?
If you can be sure of being right only 55 percent of the time,you can go down to Wall Street and make a million dollars a day.If you can't be sure of being right even 55 percent of the time,why should you tell other people they are wrong?
You can tell people they are wrong by a look or an intonation or a gesture just as eloquently as you can in words-and if you tell them they are wrong,do you make them want to agree with you? Never! For you have struck a direct blow at their intelligence,judgement,pride and self-respect.That will make them want to strike back.But it will never make them want to change their minds.You may then hurl at them all the logic of a Plato or an Immanuel Kant,but you will not alter their opinions,for you have hurt their feelings. |
