If we look at all that surrounds us, we understand at once that we do not know much about it; and so we spare ourselves and our friends a host of troubles if we face the truth without fear and say: we do not know.

Salma sat down on the chair, then looked at me and said: "You said you have two magic words that lighten many difficulties for you — won't you let me in on the hidden secret?" "I don't know," I answered. Salma gave me a meaningful look, then laughed and said: "Sorry — I thought you were joking. So that is your expression? I don't know? Where is the magic in it? And how do you avoid troubles by it?"

Let us begin at the beginning, and I will explain to you how. Many psychologists have agreed that people's troubles come not from ignorance so much as from their knowledge of everything; if you are

exceedingly sure of yourself, you are marching toward a tumble. The president of a certain university has said: "When a man's position goes wrong, he thinks it the final state he can reach, and he hates to withdraw from it despite the mistakes and problems it draws down upon him." And he says, "It is a pity that pupils in the schools are taught to be shy of the words: I don't know, and so fix it in their minds to learn and master everything." If you go to extremes of self-con-fidence, you face great difficulties. I remember accom-panying a friend in a car; she had to get out before I did, and off she went without troubling herself about the stream of cars, and when I called her attention to it she answered: "They stop — they can't break the rules." This excess of confidence has led many people to the experience of riding in an ambulance.