Current location - Quotes Website - Famous sayings - Are there any famous sayings or idioms that we have misunderstood or taken out of context?
Are there any famous sayings or idioms that we have misunderstood or taken out of context?

Incredibly stupid.

The current common meaning of this idiom is to describe "a person who is extremely stupid", but the original meaning was just the opposite - it refers to a kind of superb survival wisdom. The original profound meaning later developed into the most superficial literal meaning, which can be regarded as a masterpiece taken out of context.

The original source of the text is "The Analects of Confucius" -

Confucius said: "Ning Wuzi, if a country has the Way, it will be wise, but if it does not have the Way, it will be foolish. Its wisdom can be reached, but its stupidity cannot be reached. "

In this sentence, the focus of Confucius' praise is not Ning Wuzi's "wisdom", but his "foolishness". The "wisdom that can be achieved" here can be understood as the intelligence and wisdom shown by Ning Wuzi, which can be achieved by people; and the "foolishness" shown later in "Bang Wudao", then "Unreachable" refers to "uncommon wisdom", which is difficult for people to understand.

The word "fool" means "foolishness" in "great wisdom". It means pretending to be clumsy on the surface, but holding the pearls of wisdom in the heart. A counselor who can clearly grasp the situation, but does not show off his sharp edge and arouse jealousy, and does not speak and act unscrupulously to arouse people's suspicion, is the most terrifying and profound image of a counselor, which is completely different from "cynics" and the like.