How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people—first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an undue amount of the labor of my fellowmen. I regard class distinctions as unjustified and, in the last resort, based on force. I also believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and mentally.

我們這些肉體凡胎是多么奇怪??！每個人來到這個世上都只作短暫停留，究竟為了什么目的卻無從知曉，雖然有時覺得自己好像有所感悟。但是，無需深入思考，僅從日常生活就可明白，人是為他人而存在的——首先是為這樣一些人：他們的歡笑、健康和福祉與我們的幸福息息相關(guān)；其次是為那些為數(shù)眾多的陌生人，因為同情他們，使得我們與他們的命運聯(lián)系在了一起。每一天，我都上百次地提醒自己，我的精神和物質(zhì)生活都是建立在他人(包括生者和死者)的勞動基礎(chǔ)上，對于我已經(jīng)得到和正在得到的一切，我必須盡力給以相同程度的回報。我深深向往一種儉樸的生活，由于經(jīng)常意識到自己占用了同胞太多的勞動而心有不安。我認(rèn)為階級區(qū)分是不正當(dāng)?shù)?，其最終的達成方式常常訴諸暴力。我還認(rèn)為，無論是在身體上還是心理上，過一種簡單而不鋪張浪費的生活對每個人都有好處。

I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying, “A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants,” has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people all too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in particular, gives humor its due.

我完全不相信哲學(xué)意義上的人的自由。每個人的行為不僅受外在力量的約束，還要與內(nèi)在需求協(xié)調(diào)一致。叔本華說：“人可以任意而為，卻不能心想事成?！边@句話從我年輕時起就一直深深地啟發(fā)著我。在面對生活的艱辛?xí)r——無論是我自己還是他人的艱辛，這句話總能不斷地給我安慰，成為永不枯竭的忍耐的源泉。這一認(rèn)識能夠仁慈地緩和那份令人幾欲崩潰的責(zé)任感，并防止我們太把自己或者他人當(dāng)回事，還有助于形成一種尤其幽默的人生觀。

To inquire after the meaning or object of one’s own existence or that of all creatures has always seemed to me absurd from an objective point of view. And yet everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavors and his judgments. In this sense I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves—this ethical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to me empty. The trite objects of human efforts—possessions, outward success, luxury—have always seemed to me contemptible.

客觀地說，探求自己或者其他所有生命存在的意義或者目標(biāo)，我一直都認(rèn)為是荒唐之舉。然而，每個人多少都有自己的理想，決定著他的奮斗目標(biāo)和他對事情的看法。從這個意義上說，我從來都不會把安逸和幸福看作終極目標(biāo)——我將這種倫理道德的基礎(chǔ)稱之為“豬圈理想”。一直以來，是對真、善、美的追求照亮了我的道路，一次又一次給我以新的勇氣，讓我愉快地面對生活。如果沒有對志同道合者的那種親近感，如果沒有對客觀世界——那個藝術(shù)和科學(xué)研究永遠也無法窮極的世界——的孜孜以求，生命對我來說就是一場空。那些向來為世人競相追求的目標(biāo)——財產(chǎn)、奢華和外在的成功——我對此不屑一顧。

My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a “l(fā)one traveler” and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friend, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude-feelings which increase with the years. One becomes sharply aware, but without regret, of the limits of mutual understanding and consonance with other people. No doubt, such a person loses some of his innocence and unconcern; on the other hand, he is largely independent, of the opinions, habits, and judgments of his fellows and avoids the temptation to build his inner equilibrium upon such insecure foundations.

一方面，我有著強烈的社會正義感和社會責(zé)任感，另一方面，我的內(nèi)心又明顯沒有與他人和社會直接接觸的需求，二者形成了一個奇怪的對比。我確實是一個“孤獨的旅者”，我的心從未完全地屬于過我的祖國、我的家庭、我的朋友，甚至我最親近的家人。在面對所有這些羈絆時，我從來沒有失去過距離感，也沒有擺脫掉孤獨感——這種感覺隨著年歲的增長還在增加。一個人開始強烈地意識到人與人之間的相互理解與和諧一致是有限度的，但卻并不為此遺憾時，此人毫無疑問已經(jīng)失去了部分天真無邪、無憂無慮的童心，但另一方面，他也在很大程度上獲得了獨立，不再受他人觀點、習(xí)慣和判斷的影響，同時也能避免內(nèi)心那種要將平衡建立在這種不可靠的基礎(chǔ)之上的強烈愿望。

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery—even if mixed with fear—that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.

人類所能享有的最美妙的體驗就是神秘感，這是真正的科學(xué)與藝術(shù)的根源中最基礎(chǔ)的情感。無論是誰，如果沒有感受過它的魅力，如果不再感到好奇，不再發(fā)出驚嘆，他就無異于行尸走肉，瞎眼盲心。正是這種神秘的體驗——即使夾雜著恐懼——促進了宗教的產(chǎn)生。我們知道有某種事物的存在我們無法參透，我們對最深刻的理性與最絢麗的美的感知，只有在它們以最原始的形式出現(xiàn)時才能有所理解——正是這種認(rèn)知和情感構(gòu)成了真正的宗教信仰。在這種意義上，也只有在這種意義上，我是一個篤信宗教的人。我無法臆想出一個對自己創(chuàng)造出來的生命加以獎賞和懲罰的上帝，也無法想象他會擁有我們自身所擁有的意志。我無法也不愿想象一個人在肉體死去之后仍然可以活著。讓那些脆弱的靈魂，出于恐懼或者可笑的私利，去擁抱這種想法吧。我滿足于對生命的永恒保持神秘感，滿足于對現(xiàn)存世界神奇結(jié)構(gòu)的粗淺感知和匆匆一瞥，也滿足于通過不懈的努力，對自然本身顯露出的一部分“道”進行理解，哪怕只是極其微小的一部分。