"人生實如鍾擺，在痛苦和倦怠之間擺動......要麽庸俗，要麽孤獨”-叔本華

這是今早在思韻寫給她父親“如歌的行板”這篇博文裏讀到的一句話，感慨之餘，想去搜搜英文是怎麽翻譯的，結果沒找到，卻讀了一兩個小時他的quotes。我不懂哲學，並不了解叔本華，隻知道他好像是個悲觀主義者，認為欲望給人帶來痛苦。他的哲學好像跟佛教的“人生苦海無涯”類似 (“Life is a sorry business")，好像強調“空”, “無欲”。他對婚姻的看法類似“婚姻是愛情的墳墓”("To marry means to do everything possible to become an object of disgust to each other")。 在他33歲那年，他愛上一個十九歲的歌劇演唱家，但終沒有結婚。四十三歲時，又向一個十七歲的女子示好，遭到拒絕。看來他自己也做不到“無欲”啊：-)。現摘錄一些他的思想觀點在此。至於這雞湯到底喝不喝，每個人的喜好不同，哲學的思潮五花八門。不過了解一下，學學英文無妨啊。雖然我摘錄的部分並沒有太多悲觀的內容， 但有時人極容易受悲觀情緒左右，容易無病呻吟，喜歡將生活中的憂愁放大。這兩天仔細想了想，其實生命卑如青草，人到中年，不必錙銖必較，不必追悔早已逝去的歲月，徒增悲傷，也不必糾結生命的意義到底是什麽？Regardless, 應該向前看，積極向上地活著，珍惜所剩的歲月和時間，珍惜當下，健康開心每一天，才是我們這個年紀的人應該努力去做的。

The little incidents and accidents of every day fill us with emotion, anxiety, annoyance, passion, as long as they are close to us, when they appear so big, so important, so serious; but as soon as they are borne down the restless stream of time they lose what significance they had; we think no more of them and soon forget them altogether. They were big only because they were near.

·         …a man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.

·         …to gain anything we have longed for is only to discover how vain and empty it is; and even though we are always living in expectation of better things, at the same time we often repent and long to have the past back again.

·         It is a curious fact that in bad days we can very vividly recall the good time that is now no more; but that in good days, we have only a very cold and imperfect memory of the bad.

·         Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will.

·         …if the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance that, though they might not burst, they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly—nay, they would go mad. And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight.

·         Pleasure comes from alternating between work and rest, hardship and comfort, pleasure and pain. There is no happiness in constant satisfaction.

·         …in order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were not much more difficult to satisfy than those of the brute. Hence luxury in all its forms; delicate food, the use of tobacco and opium, spirituous liquors, fine clothes, and the thousand and one things that he considers necessary to his existence.

·         No one knows what capacities for doing and suffering he has in himself, until something comes to rouse them to activity: just as in a pond of still water, lying there like a mirror, there is no sign of the roar and thunder with which it can leap from the precipice, and yet remain what it is; or again, rise high in the air as a fountain. When water is as cold as ice, you can have no idea of the latent warmth contained in it.

·         …man may have the most excellent judgment in all other matters, and yet go wrong in those which concern himself; because here the will comes in and deranges the intellect at once. Therefore let a man take counsel of a friend. A doctor can cure everyone but himself; if he falls ill, he sends for a colleague.

·         If life—the craving for which is the very essence of our being—were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing. But as it is, we take no delight in existence except when we are struggling for something; and then distance and difficulties to be overcome make our goal look as though it would satisfy us.

·         “Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, Lighthouses as the poet said erected in the sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print.”

·         “There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome –to be got over.”

·         “Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.”

·         “Each day is a little life; every waking and rising a little birth; every fresh morning a little youth; every going to rest and sleep a little death.”

·         “To marry is to halve your rights and double your duties.”

·         “Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.”

      “  To live alone is the fate of all great souls.”