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我们这些总有一死的人的命运是多么奇特呀!我们每个人在这个世界上都只作一个短暂的逗留;目的何在,却无所知,尽管有时自以为对此若有所感。但是,不必深思,只要从日常生活就可以明白:人是为别人而生存的—首先是为那样一些人,他们的喜悦和健康关系着我们自己的全部幸福;然后是为许多我们所不认识的人,他们的命运通过同情的纽带同我们密切结合在一起。我每天上百次地提醒自己:我的精神生活和物质生活都依靠别人(包括活着的人和死去的人)的劳动,我必须尽力以同样的分量来报偿我所领受了的和至今还在领受的东西。我强烈地向往着简朴的生活,我认为阶级的区分是不合理的,它最后所凭借的是以暴力为根据。我也相信,简单淳朴的生活,无论在身体上还是在精神上,对每个人都是有益的。
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn1; 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-being2 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 labors3 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 have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty4. The ideals that 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 empty to me. The trite5 objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible6.
"My passionate7 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 'lone8 traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate9 family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude10..."
"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony11 of fate that I myself have been the recipient12 of excessive admiration13 and reverence14 from my fellow-beings, 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 attained15 through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced16, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion17 soon degenerates18; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant19 of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient20 individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime21, while the herd22 as such remains23 dull in thought and dull in feeling.
"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor24... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism25 on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome26 nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism27 -- how passionately28 I hate them!
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel29, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered30 religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate31, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive32 forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity33 and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble34 attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
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1 sojourn | |
v./n.旅居,寄居;逗留 | |
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2 well-being | |
n.安康,安乐,幸福 | |
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3 labors | |
v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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4 pigsty | |
n.猪圈,脏房间 | |
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5 trite | |
adj.陈腐的 | |
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6 contemptible | |
adj.可鄙的,可轻视的,卑劣的 | |
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7 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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8 lone | |
adj.孤寂的,单独的;唯一的 | |
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9 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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10 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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11 irony | |
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄 | |
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12 recipient | |
a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器 | |
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13 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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14 reverence | |
n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
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15 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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16 coerced | |
v.迫使做( coerce的过去式和过去分词 );强迫;(以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段)控制;支配 | |
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17 coercion | |
n.强制,高压统治 | |
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18 degenerates | |
衰退,堕落,退化( degenerate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19 pageant | |
n.壮观的游行;露天历史剧 | |
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20 sentient | |
adj.有知觉的,知悉的;adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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21 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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22 herd | |
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起 | |
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23 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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24 abhor | |
v.憎恶;痛恨 | |
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25 heroism | |
n.大无畏精神,英勇 | |
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26 loathsome | |
adj.讨厌的,令人厌恶的 | |
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27 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
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28 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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29 marvel | |
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事 | |
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30 engendered | |
v.产生(某形势或状况),造成,引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 penetrate | |
v.透(渗)入;刺入,刺穿;洞察,了解 | |
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32 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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33 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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34 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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