罗素名言
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)
English author, mathematician, & philosopher
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
---Bertrand Russell
It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won"t go.
--Bertrand Russell
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
---Bertrand Russell
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.
---Bertrand Russell
Mathematics, rightly viewed, posses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.
---Bertrand Russell
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
---Bertrand Russell
No one gossips about other people"s secret virtues.
---Bertrand Russell
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.
---Bertrand Russell
Passive acceptance of the teacher"s wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.
--Bertrand Russell
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
---Bertrand Russell
Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
--Bertrand Russell
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
--Bertrand Russell
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
--Bertrand Russell
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
--Bertrand Russell
The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of frendship or affection.
--Bertrand Russell
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
--Bertrand Russell
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
--Bertrand Russell
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
--Bertrand Russell
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
--Bertrand Russell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
--Bertrand Russell
There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
--Bertrand Russell
There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
--Bertrand Russell
There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
--Bertrand Russell
This is one of those views which are so absolutely absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them.
--Bertrand Russell
This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
--Bertrand Russell
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
--Bertrand Russell
Too little liberty brings stagnation and too much brings chaos.
--Bertrand Russell
What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.
--Bertrand Russell
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
--Bertrand Russell
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.
--Bertrand Russell,
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
--Bertrand Russell,
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
--Bertrand Russell,
A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation.
--Bertrand Russell,
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
--Bertrand Russell,
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
--Bertrand Russell,
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one"s work is terribly important.
--Bertrand Russell,
One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.
--Bertrand Russell,
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occured to him to verify this statement by examining his wives" mouths.
--Bertrand Russell
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
--Bertrand Russell
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
--Bertrand Russell
Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
--Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic (1917) ch. 4
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Dreams and Facts"
We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness"
It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "On the value of Scepticism"
It is obvious that "obscenity" is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the Courts, it means "anything that shocks the magistrate."
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Recrudescence of Puritanism"
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
--Bertrand Russell, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
--Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
--Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"
I love these two quots:
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
--Bertrand Russell
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
--Bertrand Russell
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
On Human Nature and Politics
论人性和政治
Undoubtedly the desire for food has been, and still is ,one of the main causes of great political events. But man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has desires which are , so to speak, intimate, which can never be fully gratified, and which should keep him restless even in Paradise. The boa constrictor, when he had an adequate meal, goes to sleep, and does not wake until he needs another meal. Human beings, for the most not part are not like this. When the Arabs, who had been used to living sparingly on a few dates acquired the riches of the Eastern Roman Empire and dwelt in palaces of almost unbelievable luxury, they did not, on that account, become inactive. Hunger could no longer be a motive, for Greek slaves supplied them with exquisite viands at the slightest nod. But other desires kept them active; four in particular , which we can label acquisitiveness , rivalry, vanity and love of power.毫无疑问，占有食物的欲望过去一直是，而且现在也仍然是导致重大政治事件的主要原因之一。而人不同于其他动物的一个重要方面在于人具有无止境的、永远无法满足的欲望，欲望使人即使到了天堂也会坐立不安。巨蟒饱食后就去睡觉，直到需要再进食时它才醒来，绝大部分人不像巨蟒那样。习惯于吃几个枣充饥的阿拉伯人没有因为获得了东罗马帝国的财富，稍一点头，希腊奴隶就会为他们端上最精美的食物，然而是其他欲望使他们行动起来，尤其是以下四种。可以称之为：占有欲，竞争欲、虚荣心、权力欲。
Acquisitiveness-the wish to possess as much as possible of goods , or the title to goods-is a motive which, I suppose, has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for necessaries.占有欲--希望尽可能多地占有财产或拥有财产的所有权--是一个动机。我认为该动机产生于恐惧心理和拥有必需品的欲望结合之中。
I once befriended two little girls from Esthonia, who had narrowly escaped death from starvation in a famine. They lived in my family ,and of course had plenty to eat.But they spent all their leisure visiting neighbouring farms and stealing potatoes, which they hoarded . Rockfeller ,who in his infancy had experienced great poverty ,spent his adult life in a similar manner.Similarly the Arab chieftains on their silken Byzantine divans could not forget the desert ,and hoarded riches far beyond any possible physical need. But whatever the psychoanalysis of acquisitiveness, no one can deny that it is one of the great motives -especially among the more powerful, for ,as I said before, it is one of the infinite motives .However much you may acquire you will always wish to acquire more ;satiety is a dream which will always elude you.我曾经帮助过两个来自爱沙尼亚的小姑娘，她俩在一次饥荒中差点被饿死。她们住在我家，当然有许多吃的，可是她们却利用整个闲暇时间到附近的农场去转，偷土豆，还把偷来的土豆贮藏起来。洛克菲勒年幼时经历了极大的贫穷，成年后他仍以同样节俭的方式生活。同样，坐在拜占庭帝国丝绒沙发椅上的阿拉伯酋长也不会忘记沙漠，他们把远远超出任何可能物质需要的财富囤积起来。然而，无论对占有欲进行怎样的精神分析，没有人否认：占有欲是巨大动机之一--尤其在享有较多权力的人当中更是如此，正如我上面讲到的那样，占有欲是永无止境的动机之一。无论你得到了多少，你还希望得到更多，满足是个你永远实现不了的梦。
But acquisitiveness, although it is the mainspring of the capitalist system , is by no means the most powerful of the motives that survive the conquest of hunger .Rivalry is a much stronger motive ,Over and over again in Muhammadan history, dynasties have come to grief because the sons of a sultan by different mothers could not agree, and in the resulting civil war universal ruin resulted. The same sort of thing happens in modern Europe When the British Government very unwisely allowed the Kaiser to be present at a naval review at Spithead ,the thought which arose in his mind was not the one which we had intended.What he thought was."I must have a Navy as good as Grandmamma's."And from this thought pier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry.But in fact ,a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals, Hence the present level of taxation.虽然占有欲是资本主义制度的主要动机，但它并不是征服饥饿后的一个强大动机，更为强烈的动机乃是竞争。在伊斯兰教史上，王朝一次又一次的遭难，是因为同父异母的子女们常常意见不同，从而导致了内战，赞成了普遍的破坏。现代欧洲也发生过同样的事情。当英国政府极不明智地允许德皇出席斯匹特海德海军检阅式时，出现在德皇脑海里的想法并不是我们所想的那种，他想的是"我必须拥有一个海军，跟祖母的一样好"。就是他的这个想法造成了一系列的麻烦。如果占有欲总是比竞争欲强烈，那么世界会比现在列充满幸福。但事实上，许多人只要保证把他们的竞争对手彻底击败宁肯面对贫穷，于是就出现了目前的税制。
motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic and saying "Look at me" "Look at me "is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable was a Renaissance Italian princeling who was asked by the priest on his deathbed if he had anything to repent of "Yes,"he said "There is one thing.On one occasion I had a visit from the Emperor and the Pope simultaneously .I too tem to the top of my tower to see the view ,and I neglected the opportunity to throw them both down .which would have given me immortal fame." history does not relate whether the priest gave him absolution. One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on .The talked about. The condemned murderer who is allowed to see the account of his trial in the Press is indignant if he finds a newspaper which has reported it inadequately. And the more he finds about himself in other newspapers ,the more indignant he will be with those whose reports are meager. Politicians and literary men are in the same case. And the more famous they become,the more difficult the press cutting agency finds it to satisfy them .It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence of vanity throughout the range of human life, from the child of three to the potentate at whose frown the world trembles. Mankind have even committed the impiety of attributing similar desires to the deity ,whom they imaging avid for continual praise.虚荣心是个有巨大潜力的动机。与孩子们打交道的人都知道，孩子们是如何一边做了一些滑稽动作，一边说着"看我"。"看我"是人心中最基本的欲望，它以不同的形式出现，从讲粗俗的笑话到追求死后的声望形式各异。有一位文艺复兴时期的意大利王公，临终前牧师问他是否有什么需要忏悔的，他说"是的，有一年事。""有一天皇上和教皇同时到我这里来参观，我领他们登上塔顶观景，我没有利用这个把他俩仍下去的机会，如果我那样做了，一定会获得不朽的声望。"历史没有告诉我们那位牧师是否给这个王公免了罪。虚荣心的问题之一是随着鼓励的增加而增加，越是被别人谈论，越希望被别人谈论。让判了刑的杀人犯阅读一下报上登载的审判他的报告，如果他发现哪家报纸没作充足的报导，他会十分气愤的。报纸报导他的越多，对那些报导他少的报纸他感到气愤。政治家和文人就是这样。他们越出名，剪报机构觉得越难满足他们。在人类生活阶段，从三岁幼童到皱一皱眉世界就得抖一抖的君主，要夸大虚荣心的影响不太可能，人类犯了个大不敬的错误，认为神灵敢有同样的欲望，想象神灵也渴望得到不断的歌颂。
But great as is the influence of the motives we have been considering, there is one which out weighs these all……Power, like vanity, is insatiable,Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely.And as it is especially the vice of energetic men, the casual efficacy of love of power is out of all proportion to its frequency. It is ,indeed, by far the strongest motive in the lives of important men .Love of power is greatly increased by the experience of power ,and this applies to petty power as well as to that of potentates ,In the happy days before 1914,when well-to -do ladies could acquire a host of servants, their pleasure in exercising power over the domestics steadily increased with age .Similarly, in any autocratic regime, the holders of power become increasingly, tyrannical with experience of the delights that power can afford. Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure .If you ask your boss for leave lf absence from the office on some legitimate occasion, his love of power will derive more satisfaction from refusal than from consent .If you require a building permit ,the petty official concerned will obviously get more pleasure from saying "No" than from saying "Yes".It is this sort of thing which makes the love of power such a dangerous motive ,But it has other sides which are more desirable .The pursuit of knowledge is ,I think ,mainly actuated by love lf power ,And so are all advances in scientific technique ,In politics also ,a reformer may have just as strong a love of power as a despot .It would be a complete mistake to decry love of power altogether as a motive ,Whether you will be led by this motive to actions which are useful ,or to actions which are pernicious ,depends upon the social system ,and upon your capacities .虽然我们谈到的动机影响很大，但权力欲的影响更大。如同虚荣心，权力欲也无法得到满足。简直可以这样说；只有无限权力才能使它满足。由于精力充沛的人特别容易染上这一恶习，权力欲的偶然被实现与人们希望得到权力的欲望不成比例。的确，重要人物生活中最强烈的动机就是权力欲，体验到权力后便增加了人的权力欲，无论是小小的芝麻官还是至尊的当权者都是如此，在1914年以前那段幸福的日子里，家境富裕的太太们能雇用一帮仆人，行使权力的快乐与年龄俱增。同样，在任何独裁社会制度里，当掌权者享受到权力给他带来的快乐后，他变得更加专横拔扈了。由于对人的权力表现在能迫使人去做他不愿意做的事情上，那么受权力欲影响的人往往易于给人造成痛苦而让人快乐。如果你有正当理由向上司请假不上班，拒绝比同意更能满足他的权力欲。如果你申请建一座楼房，很显然，说"不行"比说"行"更能使那个小负责人得到快乐。就是这类事情使权力欲变成了一个危险的动机。权力欲也有它符合需要的方面。我认为：寻求知识主要受权力欲的影响，科学技术的进步也受它的影响，在政治方面，改革者可能和暴君有同样强的权力欲。把权力欲完全当成一个动机是十分错误的，这个动机是引导你去做有益的事情还是去做有害的事情，取决于社会制度，取决于你的能力。
I come now to other motives which ,though in a sense less fundamental than those we have been considering ,are still of considerable importuned ,The first of these is love of excitement .Human beings show their superiority to the brutes by their capacity for boredom ,though I have sometimes thought ,in Examining the apes at the Zoo. that they ,perhaps ,have the rudiments of this tiresome emotion .However that may be,experience shows that escape from boredom is one of the really powerful desires of almost all human beings 现在我们来看一看其他动机。虽然从某种意义上讲它们比不上我们谈过的动机那样重要，但仍具有相当的重要性。其一是寻求刺激。人在感受厌烦方面表现得优于牲畜，但当我观察动物园里的猿时，有时我也想猿可能也有厌倦情感的萌芽吧。无论怎样，实验证明摆脱厌倦几乎是所有人的强烈愿望之一。
When white men first effect contact with some unspoilt race of savages, they offer them all kinds of benefits , from the light of the Gospel to pumpkin pie. These , however ,much as we may regret it ,most savages receive with indifference. What they really value among the gifts that we bring to them is intoxicating liquor ,which enables them .for the first time in their lives ,to have the illusion, for a few brief moments ,that it is better to be alive than dead.当白人开始与某个未受破坏的野蛮民族接触时，他们从送基督教福音书到送南瓜馅饼，主动给野人各种好处。虽然我们可能表示遗憾，然而许多野人却冷冷地接受这一切。在我们带去的这些礼物中野人真正看重的是那令人陶醉的酒，酒使他们有生以来第一次产生了片刻的幻觉，觉得活着比死了强。
Red Indians ,while they were still unaffected by white men ,would smoke their pipes .not calmly as we do ,but orgiastically ,in haling so deeply that they sank into a faint ,And when excitement by means of nicotine failed ,a patriotic orator would stir them up to attack a neighbouring tribe ,which would give them all the enjoyment that we (according to our temperament ) derive from a horse race of a Genral Election.红种印第安人，当他们还未受到白人影响时，不像我们平静地吸烟斗，而是发狂地猛吸直至隐入昏厥。当尼古丁的刺激不起作家时，一位爱国演说者就煽动他们去攻击邻近的一个部落，这样会使他们获得我们（根据我们的不同性格）看赛马或参加大选所得到的一切乐趣。
With civilized men ,as with primitive Red Indian tribes ,it is ,I think ,chiefly love of excitement which makes the populace applaud when war breaks out ;the emotion is exactly the same as at a football match ,although the results are sometimes somewhat more serious.我认为：和原始红种印第安部落一样，当战争爆发时，文明人出于寻求刺激而鼓掌欢呼，那种情绪和观看一切足球比赛时的情绪一模一样，虽然有时结果有些严重。
It is not altogether easy to decide what is the root cause of the love of excitement. I incline to think that our mental make-up is adapted to the stage when men lived by hunting .When a man spent a long day with very primitive weapons in stalking a deer with the hope of dinner and when ,at the end of the day ,he dragged the carcase triumphantly to his cave ,he sank down in contented weariness, while his wife dressed and cooked the meat ,He was sleepy ,and his bones ached ,and the smell of cooking filled every nook and cranny of his consciousness. At last after eating ,he sank into deep sleep. In such a life there was neither time nor energy for boredom. But when he took to agriculture , and made his wife do all the heavy work in the fields, he had time to reflect upon the vanity of human life ,to invent mythologies and systems of philosophy ,and to dream of the life hereafter in which he would perpetually hunt the wild boar of Valhalla.找出寻求刺激的根源并不是件容易的事情。我倾向于认为我们目前的心理构成只停留在人靠狩猎为生的那个阶段上。一个男人花整整一天的时间，拿着非常原始的武器跟踪一头鹿，希望美餐一顿。在一天结束之时，胜利地将死鹿拖进他的洞里，然后他疲惫不堪地、心满意足地坐下来，由他的妻子收拾鹿、炖鹿肉。他困得要命，骨头发酸，炖鹿肉的香味充进他意识中的每个角落。饱餐后他便呼呼大睡。在这种生活里面既没有时间也没有精力去感到厌倦。但当他开始从事农业，让妻子干田里一切重活时，他就有时间去考虑人生的虚荣、去创造神话和哲学体系，梦想来世他能不断地捕猎天堂的野猪。
our mental make-up is suited to a life of very severe physical labour , I used ,when I was younger ,to take my holidays walking ,I would cover 25 miles a day ,and when the evening came I had no need of anything to keep me from boredom ,since the delight of sitting amply sufficed .But modern lift cannot be conducted on these physically strenuous principles ,A great deal of work is sedentary and most manual work exercises only a few specialized muscles. When London crowds assemble in Trafalgar Square to cheer to the echo an announcement that the government has decided to have them killed ,they would not do so if they had walked 25 miles that day .This cure for bellicosity is ,however ,impracticable and if the human race is to survive - a thing which is ,perhaps ,undesirable -other means must be found for securing an innocent outlet for the unused physical energy that produces love of excitement.我们的心事构成只适于干非常重的体力劳动的生活，当我年轻的时候，我经常徒步旅行度假，一天要步行25英里，到了晚上我就不需要用什么去摆脱厌倦，因为坐着的快乐就足够了。但是现代生活不能靠这种消耗体力的原则进行，许多工作都需要坐着干，大多数体力活也只需运用几块专门肌肉而已。成群成群的伦敦人聚集在特拉法加广场欢呼政府决定让他们去送死的声明，如果那天他们步行25英里，他们就不会那样喊了。如果人类要生存下去--也许它不合需要--用步行医治好战问题是不切实际的，必须找出其他既能发泄未用上的、能产生刺激欲的体验又无危害的途径来。
This is a matter which has been too little considered, both by moralists and by social reformers .The social reformers are of the opinion that they have more serious things to consider , The moralists ,on the other hand ,are immensely impressed with the seriousness of all the permitted outlets of the love of excitement; the seriousness ,however ,in their minds is that of Sin ,Dance halls ,cinemas ,this age of jazz are all ,if we may believe our ears gateways to Hell, and we should be better employed sitting at home contemplating our sins. I find myself unable to be in entire agreement with the grave men who utter these warnings. The devil has many forms, some designed to deceive the young ,some designed to deceive the old and serious .If it is the devil that tempts the young to enjoy themselves ,is it not ,perhaps ,the same personage that persuades the old to condemn their enjoyment? And is not condemnation perhaps merely a form of excitement appropriate to old age ?And is it not , perhaps ,a drug which -like opium -has to be taken in continually stronger doses to produce the desired effect? Is it not to be feared that ,beginning with the wickedness of the cinema,we should be led step by step to condemn the opposite political party ,dagoes ,wops ,Asiatics ,and ,in short, everybody except the fellow members of our club? And it is from just such condemnations ,when widespread, that wars proceed .I never heard of a war that proceeded from dance halls.对于这种事情道德家和社会改革者们考虑得极少，社会改革者们认为他们有更为严重的事情要考虑，而另一方面，道德家们则对一切允许人们发泄刺激欲的事情的严重性产生极大兴趣。在他们脑子里，严重性就是犯罪的严重性。如果我们没听错的话，舞厅、电影院，我们这个时代的爵士乐统统都是通往地狱的途径，因此我们最好坐在家里反思自己的罪过。我觉得自己不能完全同意发出这样警告的人的意见。魔鬼有多种形式，有的企图欺骗青年，有的企图欺骗老年人和严肃的人，假如魔鬼能引诱青年寻欢作乐，有没有可能这个魔鬼还能劝说老年人去谴责青年享乐的呢？有没有可能受谴责是一种适合老年人的刺激呢？有没有可能有那么一种药--像鸦片--必须不断地，大剂量地吃，以此产生所需要的效果来？是不是恐怕有人从谴责电影院的邪恶开始；引导我们一步一步地去谴责对立政党、意大利佬、南欧佬、亚洲佬，总之，除了本俱乐部成员之外的所有人呢？当这种谴责广泛传播之时，战争便爆发了。我从未听说过哪场战争是由舞厅引起的。
What is serious about excitement is that so many of its forms are destructive.It is destructive in those who cannot resist excess in alcohol or gambling. It is destructive when it takes the form of mobviolence . And above all it is destructive when it leads to war , It is so deep a need that is will find harmful outlets of this kind unless innocent outlets are at hand. There are such innocent outlets at present in sport, and in politics so long as it is kept in constitutional bounds , But these are not sufficient ,especially as the kind of politics that is most exciting is also the kind that does most harm.寻求刺激的严重性在于它的许多种形式具有危害性。其有害性表现在那些不能控制自己饮酒、赌博的人身上。当寻求刺激以聚众斗殴的形式出现时，它是有害的。总之，当寻求刺激导致战争时，它是有害的。除非有既无危害又能发泄人的刺激欲的现成途径，否则人的刺激欲太强可能用有害的方式发泄。目前既无危害又能发泄人的追求刺激欲的途径有运动、还有政治（只要在宪法之内），但是这些还不够，尤其是最能产生刺激的那种政治，它也最能产生危害。
Civilized life has grown altogether too tame, and, if it is to be stable , it must provide harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting. In Australia ,where people are few and rabbits are many ,I watched a whole populace satisfying the primitive impulse in the primitive manner by the skilful slaughter of many thousands of rabbits ,But in London or New York, where people are many and rabbits are few ,some other means must be found to gratify primitive impulse ,I think every big town should contain artificial waterfalls that people could descend in very fragile canoes ,and they should contain bathing pools full of mechanical sharks ,Any persons found advocating a preventive war shoul
English author, mathematician, & philosopher
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
---Bertrand Russell
It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won"t go.
--Bertrand Russell
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
---Bertrand Russell
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.
---Bertrand Russell
Mathematics, rightly viewed, posses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.
---Bertrand Russell
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
---Bertrand Russell
No one gossips about other people"s secret virtues.
---Bertrand Russell
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.
---Bertrand Russell
Passive acceptance of the teacher"s wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.
--Bertrand Russell
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
---Bertrand Russell
Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
--Bertrand Russell
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
--Bertrand Russell
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
--Bertrand Russell
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
--Bertrand Russell
The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of frendship or affection.
--Bertrand Russell
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
--Bertrand Russell
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
--Bertrand Russell
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
--Bertrand Russell
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
--Bertrand Russell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
--Bertrand Russell
There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
--Bertrand Russell
There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
--Bertrand Russell
There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
--Bertrand Russell
This is one of those views which are so absolutely absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them.
--Bertrand Russell
This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
--Bertrand Russell
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
--Bertrand Russell
Too little liberty brings stagnation and too much brings chaos.
--Bertrand Russell
What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.
--Bertrand Russell
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
--Bertrand Russell
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.
--Bertrand Russell,
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
--Bertrand Russell,
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
--Bertrand Russell,
A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation.
--Bertrand Russell,
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
--Bertrand Russell,
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
--Bertrand Russell,
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one"s work is terribly important.
--Bertrand Russell,
One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.
--Bertrand Russell,
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occured to him to verify this statement by examining his wives" mouths.
--Bertrand Russell
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
--Bertrand Russell
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
--Bertrand Russell
Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
--Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic (1917) ch. 4
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Dreams and Facts"
We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness"
It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "On the value of Scepticism"
It is obvious that "obscenity" is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the Courts, it means "anything that shocks the magistrate."
--Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Recrudescence of Puritanism"
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
--Bertrand Russell, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
--Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
--Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"
I love these two quots:
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
--Bertrand Russell
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
--Bertrand Russell
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
On Human Nature and Politics
论人性和政治
Undoubtedly the desire for food has been, and still is ,one of the main causes of great political events. But man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has desires which are , so to speak, intimate, which can never be fully gratified, and which should keep him restless even in Paradise. The boa constrictor, when he had an adequate meal, goes to sleep, and does not wake until he needs another meal. Human beings, for the most not part are not like this. When the Arabs, who had been used to living sparingly on a few dates acquired the riches of the Eastern Roman Empire and dwelt in palaces of almost unbelievable luxury, they did not, on that account, become inactive. Hunger could no longer be a motive, for Greek slaves supplied them with exquisite viands at the slightest nod. But other desires kept them active; four in particular , which we can label acquisitiveness , rivalry, vanity and love of power.毫无疑问，占有食物的欲望过去一直是，而且现在也仍然是导致重大政治事件的主要原因之一。而人不同于其他动物的一个重要方面在于人具有无止境的、永远无法满足的欲望，欲望使人即使到了天堂也会坐立不安。巨蟒饱食后就去睡觉，直到需要再进食时它才醒来，绝大部分人不像巨蟒那样。习惯于吃几个枣充饥的阿拉伯人没有因为获得了东罗马帝国的财富，稍一点头，希腊奴隶就会为他们端上最精美的食物，然而是其他欲望使他们行动起来，尤其是以下四种。可以称之为：占有欲，竞争欲、虚荣心、权力欲。
Acquisitiveness-the wish to possess as much as possible of goods , or the title to goods-is a motive which, I suppose, has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for necessaries.占有欲--希望尽可能多地占有财产或拥有财产的所有权--是一个动机。我认为该动机产生于恐惧心理和拥有必需品的欲望结合之中。
I once befriended two little girls from Esthonia, who had narrowly escaped death from starvation in a famine. They lived in my family ,and of course had plenty to eat.But they spent all their leisure visiting neighbouring farms and stealing potatoes, which they hoarded . Rockfeller ,who in his infancy had experienced great poverty ,spent his adult life in a similar manner.Similarly the Arab chieftains on their silken Byzantine divans could not forget the desert ,and hoarded riches far beyond any possible physical need. But whatever the psychoanalysis of acquisitiveness, no one can deny that it is one of the great motives -especially among the more powerful, for ,as I said before, it is one of the infinite motives .However much you may acquire you will always wish to acquire more ;satiety is a dream which will always elude you.我曾经帮助过两个来自爱沙尼亚的小姑娘，她俩在一次饥荒中差点被饿死。她们住在我家，当然有许多吃的，可是她们却利用整个闲暇时间到附近的农场去转，偷土豆，还把偷来的土豆贮藏起来。洛克菲勒年幼时经历了极大的贫穷，成年后他仍以同样节俭的方式生活。同样，坐在拜占庭帝国丝绒沙发椅上的阿拉伯酋长也不会忘记沙漠，他们把远远超出任何可能物质需要的财富囤积起来。然而，无论对占有欲进行怎样的精神分析，没有人否认：占有欲是巨大动机之一--尤其在享有较多权力的人当中更是如此，正如我上面讲到的那样，占有欲是永无止境的动机之一。无论你得到了多少，你还希望得到更多，满足是个你永远实现不了的梦。
But acquisitiveness, although it is the mainspring of the capitalist system , is by no means the most powerful of the motives that survive the conquest of hunger .Rivalry is a much stronger motive ,Over and over again in Muhammadan history, dynasties have come to grief because the sons of a sultan by different mothers could not agree, and in the resulting civil war universal ruin resulted. The same sort of thing happens in modern Europe When the British Government very unwisely allowed the Kaiser to be present at a naval review at Spithead ,the thought which arose in his mind was not the one which we had intended.What he thought was."I must have a Navy as good as Grandmamma's."And from this thought pier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry.But in fact ,a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals, Hence the present level of taxation.虽然占有欲是资本主义制度的主要动机，但它并不是征服饥饿后的一个强大动机，更为强烈的动机乃是竞争。在伊斯兰教史上，王朝一次又一次的遭难，是因为同父异母的子女们常常意见不同，从而导致了内战，赞成了普遍的破坏。现代欧洲也发生过同样的事情。当英国政府极不明智地允许德皇出席斯匹特海德海军检阅式时，出现在德皇脑海里的想法并不是我们所想的那种，他想的是"我必须拥有一个海军，跟祖母的一样好"。就是他的这个想法造成了一系列的麻烦。如果占有欲总是比竞争欲强烈，那么世界会比现在列充满幸福。但事实上，许多人只要保证把他们的竞争对手彻底击败宁肯面对贫穷，于是就出现了目前的税制。
motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic and saying "Look at me" "Look at me "is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable was a Renaissance Italian princeling who was asked by the priest on his deathbed if he had anything to repent of "Yes,"he said "There is one thing.On one occasion I had a visit from the Emperor and the Pope simultaneously .I too tem to the top of my tower to see the view ,and I neglected the opportunity to throw them both down .which would have given me immortal fame." history does not relate whether the priest gave him absolution. One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on .The talked about. The condemned murderer who is allowed to see the account of his trial in the Press is indignant if he finds a newspaper which has reported it inadequately. And the more he finds about himself in other newspapers ,the more indignant he will be with those whose reports are meager. Politicians and literary men are in the same case. And the more famous they become,the more difficult the press cutting agency finds it to satisfy them .It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence of vanity throughout the range of human life, from the child of three to the potentate at whose frown the world trembles. Mankind have even committed the impiety of attributing similar desires to the deity ,whom they imaging avid for continual praise.虚荣心是个有巨大潜力的动机。与孩子们打交道的人都知道，孩子们是如何一边做了一些滑稽动作，一边说着"看我"。"看我"是人心中最基本的欲望，它以不同的形式出现，从讲粗俗的笑话到追求死后的声望形式各异。有一位文艺复兴时期的意大利王公，临终前牧师问他是否有什么需要忏悔的，他说"是的，有一年事。""有一天皇上和教皇同时到我这里来参观，我领他们登上塔顶观景，我没有利用这个把他俩仍下去的机会，如果我那样做了，一定会获得不朽的声望。"历史没有告诉我们那位牧师是否给这个王公免了罪。虚荣心的问题之一是随着鼓励的增加而增加，越是被别人谈论，越希望被别人谈论。让判了刑的杀人犯阅读一下报上登载的审判他的报告，如果他发现哪家报纸没作充足的报导，他会十分气愤的。报纸报导他的越多，对那些报导他少的报纸他感到气愤。政治家和文人就是这样。他们越出名，剪报机构觉得越难满足他们。在人类生活阶段，从三岁幼童到皱一皱眉世界就得抖一抖的君主，要夸大虚荣心的影响不太可能，人类犯了个大不敬的错误，认为神灵敢有同样的欲望，想象神灵也渴望得到不断的歌颂。
But great as is the influence of the motives we have been considering, there is one which out weighs these all……Power, like vanity, is insatiable,Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely.And as it is especially the vice of energetic men, the casual efficacy of love of power is out of all proportion to its frequency. It is ,indeed, by far the strongest motive in the lives of important men .Love of power is greatly increased by the experience of power ,and this applies to petty power as well as to that of potentates ,In the happy days before 1914,when well-to -do ladies could acquire a host of servants, their pleasure in exercising power over the domestics steadily increased with age .Similarly, in any autocratic regime, the holders of power become increasingly, tyrannical with experience of the delights that power can afford. Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure .If you ask your boss for leave lf absence from the office on some legitimate occasion, his love of power will derive more satisfaction from refusal than from consent .If you require a building permit ,the petty official concerned will obviously get more pleasure from saying "No" than from saying "Yes".It is this sort of thing which makes the love of power such a dangerous motive ,But it has other sides which are more desirable .The pursuit of knowledge is ,I think ,mainly actuated by love lf power ,And so are all advances in scientific technique ,In politics also ,a reformer may have just as strong a love of power as a despot .It would be a complete mistake to decry love of power altogether as a motive ,Whether you will be led by this motive to actions which are useful ,or to actions which are pernicious ,depends upon the social system ,and upon your capacities .虽然我们谈到的动机影响很大，但权力欲的影响更大。如同虚荣心，权力欲也无法得到满足。简直可以这样说；只有无限权力才能使它满足。由于精力充沛的人特别容易染上这一恶习，权力欲的偶然被实现与人们希望得到权力的欲望不成比例。的确，重要人物生活中最强烈的动机就是权力欲，体验到权力后便增加了人的权力欲，无论是小小的芝麻官还是至尊的当权者都是如此，在1914年以前那段幸福的日子里，家境富裕的太太们能雇用一帮仆人，行使权力的快乐与年龄俱增。同样，在任何独裁社会制度里，当掌权者享受到权力给他带来的快乐后，他变得更加专横拔扈了。由于对人的权力表现在能迫使人去做他不愿意做的事情上，那么受权力欲影响的人往往易于给人造成痛苦而让人快乐。如果你有正当理由向上司请假不上班，拒绝比同意更能满足他的权力欲。如果你申请建一座楼房，很显然，说"不行"比说"行"更能使那个小负责人得到快乐。就是这类事情使权力欲变成了一个危险的动机。权力欲也有它符合需要的方面。我认为：寻求知识主要受权力欲的影响，科学技术的进步也受它的影响，在政治方面，改革者可能和暴君有同样强的权力欲。把权力欲完全当成一个动机是十分错误的，这个动机是引导你去做有益的事情还是去做有害的事情，取决于社会制度，取决于你的能力。
I come now to other motives which ,though in a sense less fundamental than those we have been considering ,are still of considerable importuned ,The first of these is love of excitement .Human beings show their superiority to the brutes by their capacity for boredom ,though I have sometimes thought ,in Examining the apes at the Zoo. that they ,perhaps ,have the rudiments of this tiresome emotion .However that may be,experience shows that escape from boredom is one of the really powerful desires of almost all human beings 现在我们来看一看其他动机。虽然从某种意义上讲它们比不上我们谈过的动机那样重要，但仍具有相当的重要性。其一是寻求刺激。人在感受厌烦方面表现得优于牲畜，但当我观察动物园里的猿时，有时我也想猿可能也有厌倦情感的萌芽吧。无论怎样，实验证明摆脱厌倦几乎是所有人的强烈愿望之一。
When white men first effect contact with some unspoilt race of savages, they offer them all kinds of benefits , from the light of the Gospel to pumpkin pie. These , however ,much as we may regret it ,most savages receive with indifference. What they really value among the gifts that we bring to them is intoxicating liquor ,which enables them .for the first time in their lives ,to have the illusion, for a few brief moments ,that it is better to be alive than dead.当白人开始与某个未受破坏的野蛮民族接触时，他们从送基督教福音书到送南瓜馅饼，主动给野人各种好处。虽然我们可能表示遗憾，然而许多野人却冷冷地接受这一切。在我们带去的这些礼物中野人真正看重的是那令人陶醉的酒，酒使他们有生以来第一次产生了片刻的幻觉，觉得活着比死了强。
Red Indians ,while they were still unaffected by white men ,would smoke their pipes .not calmly as we do ,but orgiastically ,in haling so deeply that they sank into a faint ,And when excitement by means of nicotine failed ,a patriotic orator would stir them up to attack a neighbouring tribe ,which would give them all the enjoyment that we (according to our temperament ) derive from a horse race of a Genral Election.红种印第安人，当他们还未受到白人影响时，不像我们平静地吸烟斗，而是发狂地猛吸直至隐入昏厥。当尼古丁的刺激不起作家时，一位爱国演说者就煽动他们去攻击邻近的一个部落，这样会使他们获得我们（根据我们的不同性格）看赛马或参加大选所得到的一切乐趣。
With civilized men ,as with primitive Red Indian tribes ,it is ,I think ,chiefly love of excitement which makes the populace applaud when war breaks out ;the emotion is exactly the same as at a football match ,although the results are sometimes somewhat more serious.我认为：和原始红种印第安部落一样，当战争爆发时，文明人出于寻求刺激而鼓掌欢呼，那种情绪和观看一切足球比赛时的情绪一模一样，虽然有时结果有些严重。
It is not altogether easy to decide what is the root cause of the love of excitement. I incline to think that our mental make-up is adapted to the stage when men lived by hunting .When a man spent a long day with very primitive weapons in stalking a deer with the hope of dinner and when ,at the end of the day ,he dragged the carcase triumphantly to his cave ,he sank down in contented weariness, while his wife dressed and cooked the meat ,He was sleepy ,and his bones ached ,and the smell of cooking filled every nook and cranny of his consciousness. At last after eating ,he sank into deep sleep. In such a life there was neither time nor energy for boredom. But when he took to agriculture , and made his wife do all the heavy work in the fields, he had time to reflect upon the vanity of human life ,to invent mythologies and systems of philosophy ,and to dream of the life hereafter in which he would perpetually hunt the wild boar of Valhalla.找出寻求刺激的根源并不是件容易的事情。我倾向于认为我们目前的心理构成只停留在人靠狩猎为生的那个阶段上。一个男人花整整一天的时间，拿着非常原始的武器跟踪一头鹿，希望美餐一顿。在一天结束之时，胜利地将死鹿拖进他的洞里，然后他疲惫不堪地、心满意足地坐下来，由他的妻子收拾鹿、炖鹿肉。他困得要命，骨头发酸，炖鹿肉的香味充进他意识中的每个角落。饱餐后他便呼呼大睡。在这种生活里面既没有时间也没有精力去感到厌倦。但当他开始从事农业，让妻子干田里一切重活时，他就有时间去考虑人生的虚荣、去创造神话和哲学体系，梦想来世他能不断地捕猎天堂的野猪。
our mental make-up is suited to a life of very severe physical labour , I used ,when I was younger ,to take my holidays walking ,I would cover 25 miles a day ,and when the evening came I had no need of anything to keep me from boredom ,since the delight of sitting amply sufficed .But modern lift cannot be conducted on these physically strenuous principles ,A great deal of work is sedentary and most manual work exercises only a few specialized muscles. When London crowds assemble in Trafalgar Square to cheer to the echo an announcement that the government has decided to have them killed ,they would not do so if they had walked 25 miles that day .This cure for bellicosity is ,however ,impracticable and if the human race is to survive - a thing which is ,perhaps ,undesirable -other means must be found for securing an innocent outlet for the unused physical energy that produces love of excitement.我们的心事构成只适于干非常重的体力劳动的生活，当我年轻的时候，我经常徒步旅行度假，一天要步行25英里，到了晚上我就不需要用什么去摆脱厌倦，因为坐着的快乐就足够了。但是现代生活不能靠这种消耗体力的原则进行，许多工作都需要坐着干，大多数体力活也只需运用几块专门肌肉而已。成群成群的伦敦人聚集在特拉法加广场欢呼政府决定让他们去送死的声明，如果那天他们步行25英里，他们就不会那样喊了。如果人类要生存下去--也许它不合需要--用步行医治好战问题是不切实际的，必须找出其他既能发泄未用上的、能产生刺激欲的体验又无危害的途径来。
This is a matter which has been too little considered, both by moralists and by social reformers .The social reformers are of the opinion that they have more serious things to consider , The moralists ,on the other hand ,are immensely impressed with the seriousness of all the permitted outlets of the love of excitement; the seriousness ,however ,in their minds is that of Sin ,Dance halls ,cinemas ,this age of jazz are all ,if we may believe our ears gateways to Hell, and we should be better employed sitting at home contemplating our sins. I find myself unable to be in entire agreement with the grave men who utter these warnings. The devil has many forms, some designed to deceive the young ,some designed to deceive the old and serious .If it is the devil that tempts the young to enjoy themselves ,is it not ,perhaps ,the same personage that persuades the old to condemn their enjoyment? And is not condemnation perhaps merely a form of excitement appropriate to old age ?And is it not , perhaps ,a drug which -like opium -has to be taken in continually stronger doses to produce the desired effect? Is it not to be feared that ,beginning with the wickedness of the cinema,we should be led step by step to condemn the opposite political party ,dagoes ,wops ,Asiatics ,and ,in short, everybody except the fellow members of our club? And it is from just such condemnations ,when widespread, that wars proceed .I never heard of a war that proceeded from dance halls.对于这种事情道德家和社会改革者们考虑得极少，社会改革者们认为他们有更为严重的事情要考虑，而另一方面，道德家们则对一切允许人们发泄刺激欲的事情的严重性产生极大兴趣。在他们脑子里，严重性就是犯罪的严重性。如果我们没听错的话，舞厅、电影院，我们这个时代的爵士乐统统都是通往地狱的途径，因此我们最好坐在家里反思自己的罪过。我觉得自己不能完全同意发出这样警告的人的意见。魔鬼有多种形式，有的企图欺骗青年，有的企图欺骗老年人和严肃的人，假如魔鬼能引诱青年寻欢作乐，有没有可能这个魔鬼还能劝说老年人去谴责青年享乐的呢？有没有可能受谴责是一种适合老年人的刺激呢？有没有可能有那么一种药--像鸦片--必须不断地，大剂量地吃，以此产生所需要的效果来？是不是恐怕有人从谴责电影院的邪恶开始；引导我们一步一步地去谴责对立政党、意大利佬、南欧佬、亚洲佬，总之，除了本俱乐部成员之外的所有人呢？当这种谴责广泛传播之时，战争便爆发了。我从未听说过哪场战争是由舞厅引起的。
What is serious about excitement is that so many of its forms are destructive.It is destructive in those who cannot resist excess in alcohol or gambling. It is destructive when it takes the form of mobviolence . And above all it is destructive when it leads to war , It is so deep a need that is will find harmful outlets of this kind unless innocent outlets are at hand. There are such innocent outlets at present in sport, and in politics so long as it is kept in constitutional bounds , But these are not sufficient ,especially as the kind of politics that is most exciting is also the kind that does most harm.寻求刺激的严重性在于它的许多种形式具有危害性。其有害性表现在那些不能控制自己饮酒、赌博的人身上。当寻求刺激以聚众斗殴的形式出现时，它是有害的。总之，当寻求刺激导致战争时，它是有害的。除非有既无危害又能发泄人的刺激欲的现成途径，否则人的刺激欲太强可能用有害的方式发泄。目前既无危害又能发泄人的追求刺激欲的途径有运动、还有政治（只要在宪法之内），但是这些还不够，尤其是最能产生刺激的那种政治，它也最能产生危害。
Civilized life has grown altogether too tame, and, if it is to be stable , it must provide harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting. In Australia ,where people are few and rabbits are many ,I watched a whole populace satisfying the primitive impulse in the primitive manner by the skilful slaughter of many thousands of rabbits ,But in London or New York, where people are many and rabbits are few ,some other means must be found to gratify primitive impulse ,I think every big town should contain artificial waterfalls that people could descend in very fragile canoes ,and they should contain bathing pools full of mechanical sharks ,Any persons found advocating a preventive war shoul
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Annie 转发了这篇日记 2024-06-04 20:34:50
