Words of fools and wise men

A wise man can know gains and losses and be good at calculating. But because I think too much, I often set traps and obstacles for myself. Therefore, in ancient times, there were many cases where "cleverness was overtaken by cleverness". Fools are characterized by honesty, persistence and ignorance, and they can't distinguish between good and bad, so there is often a thing that "fools are blessed with fools".

Smart people don't believe in simple truth. They think that what everyone knows will definitely not be a useful truth. A fool, on the other hand, believes in the truth that everyone agrees with and pursues it seriously.

Smart people don't believe in simple methods, and what they think they can't do can't be done by others. And fools think that the way that everyone can do well is the good way.

Smart people always want to seize a good opportunity or find a shortcut, while stupid people always worry that they are not working hard enough and doing well enough.

Smart people always come up with good ideas. However, because they have put forward a better idea, they believe that they will put forward a better idea next, and they intend to wait until they have a wonderful idea before starting to act. Fools rarely come up with any good ideas, so as long as they hear other people's good ideas, they will immediately try their best to implement them seriously, and the result is often that they do what smart people can but don't do.

I often wonder whether the ancient literati got these two words upside down when explaining Chinese characters, and thought that the words "wise man" and "fool" should be interchanged, because I always see that smart people are doing stupid things, while fools are doing smart things. Here are a few examples to illustrate some problems:

( 1)

A seed once said to someone, "As long as you bury me in the soil and water me in time, I will bear many fruits for you in time." . The wise man immediately vetoed: "There is no such simple thing in the world." He refused to do so, thinking it was a waste of time and energy. After listening to this, the fool did what the seed said seriously. A few years later, he planted fruit trees and gained a lot.

(2)

Books once said to everyone, "I have gold, fertile land and beautiful women", but the wise man insisted that books deceived him and claimed that he would never be "fooled". Only those fools listen, do as the book says and study the book carefully. As a result, fools have achieved what wise men envy.

(3)

A wise man won't listen to his parents, because he finds that adults say one thing and do another, and parents tell the truth themselves, but they can't do it themselves; A fool always takes his parents' words as guidelines and tells him to work hard and be diligent, because he believes that his parents will never cheat him or hurt him. As a result, fools grow up to surpass their parents and smart people.