要追究一个人自己或一切生物生存的意义或目的,从客观的观点看来,我总觉得是愚蠢可笑的。可是每个人都有一定的理想,这种理想决定着他的努力和判断的方向。就在这个意义上,我从来不把安逸和享乐看作是生活目的本身——这种伦理基础,我叫它猪栏的理想。
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.
照亮我的道路,并且不断地给我新的勇气去愉快地正视生活的理想,是真、善和美。要是没有志同道合者之间的亲切感情,要不是全神贯注于客观世界——那个在艺术和科学工作领域里永远达不到的对象,那么在我看来,生活就会是空虚的。人们所努力追求的庸俗的目标——财产、虚荣、奢侈的生活——我总觉得都是可鄙的。
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.
我对社会正义和社会责任的强烈感觉,同我显然的对别人和社会直接接触的淡漠,两者总是形成古怪的对照。我实在是一个“孤独的旅客”,我未曾全心全意地属于我的国家,我的家庭,我的朋友,甚至我最接近的亲人;在所有这些关系面前,我总是感觉到有一定距离并且需要保持孤独——而这种感受正与年俱增。人们会清楚地发觉,同别人的相互了解和协调一致是有限度的,但这不足惋惜。这样的人无疑有点失去他的天真无邪和无忧无虑的心境;但另一方面,他却能够在很大程度上不为别人的意见、习惯和判断所左右,并且能够不受诱惑要去把他的内心平衡在这样一些不可靠的基础之上。
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 "lone 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.
我的政治理想是民主主义。让每一个人都作为个人而受到尊重,而不让任何人成为崇拜的偶像。我自己受到了人们过分的赞扬和尊敬,这不是由于我自己的过错,也不是由于我自己的功劳,而实在是一种命运的嘲弄。其原因大概在于人们有一种愿望,想理解我以自己的微薄绵力通过不断的斗争所获得的少数几个观念,而这种愿望有很多人却未能实现。
My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-being, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle.
我完全明白,一个组织要实现它的目的,就必须有一个人去思考,去指挥,并且全面负担起责任来。但是被领导的人不应当受到压迫,他们必须有可能来选择自己的领袖。
I am quite aware that it is necessary for the achievement of the objective of an organization that one man should do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader.
在我看来,强迫的专制制度很快就会腐化堕落。因为暴力所招引来的总是一些品德低劣的人,而且我相信,天才的暴君总是由无赖来继承,这是一条千古不易的规律。就是这个缘故,我总是强烈地反对今天我们在意大利和俄国所见到的那种制度。
An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels, For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia today.
像欧洲今天所存在的情况,使得民主形势受到了怀疑,这不能归咎于民主原则本身,而是由于政府的不稳定和选举制度中与个人无关的特征。我相信美国在这方面已经找到了正确的道路。他们选出了一个任期足够长的总统,他有充分的权利来真正履行他的职责。另一方面,在德国的政治制度中,我所重视的是,它为救济患病或贫困的人作出了比较广泛的规定。
The thing that has brought discredit upon the form of democracy as it exists in Europe today is not to be laid to the door of the democratic principle as such, but to the lack of stability of governments and to the impersonal character of the electoral system. I believe that in this respect the United States of America have found the right way. They have a President powers really to exercise his responsibility. What I value, on the other hand, in the German political system is the more extensive provision that it makes for the individual in case of illness or need.
在人生的丰富多彩的表演中,我觉得真正可贵的,不是政治上的国家,而是有创造性的、有感情的个人,是人格;只有个人才能创造出高尚的和卓越的东西,而群众本身在思想上总是迟钝的,在感觉上也总是迟钝的。
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