雅思长青话题之
读书：
书摘 http://www.sina.com.cn 2008年10月31日 10:18 沪江英语
下面是两段书摘，以飨读者：
虽然你打算活三千年，活数万年，但还是要记住：任何人失去的不是什么别的生活，而只是他现在所过的生活；任何人所过的也不是什么别的生活，而只是他现在失去的生活。最长和最短的生命就如此成为同一。虽然那已逝去的并不相同，但现在对于所有人都是同样的。所以那丧失的看来就只是一单纯的片刻。因为一个人不可能丧失过去或未来-一个人没有的东西，有什么人能从他夺走呢？这样你就必须把这两件事牢记在心：一是所有来自永恒的事物犹如形式，是循环往复的，一个人是在一百年还是在两千年或无限的时间里看到同样的事物，这对他都是一回事；二是生命最长者和濒临死亡者失去的是同样的东西。因为，惟一能从一个人那里夺走的只是现在。如果这是真的，即一个人只拥有现在，那么一个人就不可能丧失一件他并不拥有的东西。
Though thou shouldst be going to live three thousand years, and as many times ten thousand years, still remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses. The longest and shortest are thus brought to the same. For the present is the same to all, though that which perishes is not the same; and so that which is lost appears to be a mere moment. For a man cannot lose either the past or the future: for what a man has not, how can any one take this from him? These two things then thou must bear in mind; the one, that all things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle, and that it makes no difference whether a man shall see the same things during a hundred years or two hundred, or an infinite time; and the second, that the longest liver and he who will die soonest lose just the same. For the present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived, if it is true that this is the only thing which he has, and that a man cannot lose a thing if he has it not.
一日之始就对自己说：我将遇见好管闲事的人、忘恩负义的人、傲慢的人、欺诈的人、嫉妒的人和孤僻的人。他们染有这些品性是因为他们不知道什么是善，什么是恶。但是，我，-作为知道善和恶的性质，知道前者是美后者是丑的人；作为知道做了错事的人们的本性是与我相似，我们不仅具有同样的血液和皮肤，而且分享同样的理智和同样的一分神性的人-决不可能被他们中的任何一个人损害，因为任何人都不可能把恶强加于我，我也不可能迁怒于这些与我同类的人，或者憎恨他们。因为，我们是天生要合作的，犹如手足，唇齿和眼睑。那么，相互反对就是违反本性了，就是自寻烦恼和自我排斥。
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.
来源：《沉思录》马可·奥勒留
