"The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard."
“The path to Salvation is as narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor's edge.”
"I couldn't go back now. I’m on the threshold. I see vast lands of the spirit stretching out before me , beckoning, and I’m eager to travel them.”
"Well, love isn’t a good sailor and it languishes on a sea voyage. You’ll be surprised when you have the Atlantic between you and Larry to find how slight the pang that before you sailed seemed intolerable.”
“The man I am writing about is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water.”
“I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.”
“Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.”
I suppose it was the end of the world for her when her husband and her baby were killed. I suppose she didn't care what became of her and flung herself into the horrible degradation of drink and promiscuous copulation to get even with life that had treated her so cruelly. She'd lived in heaven and when she lost it she couldn't put up with the common earth of common men, but in despair plunged headlong into hell. I can imagine that if she couldn't drink the nectar of the gods any more she thought she might as well drink bathroom gin.”
“I only wanted to suggest to you that self-confidence is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling. It whirls its victim to destruction in the highest affirmation of his personality. The object doesn't matter; it may be worth while or it may be worthless. No wine is so intoxicating, no love so shattering, no vice so compelling. When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself? At best he can only sacrifice his only begotten son.”
“You attach more importance to money than I do.'
'I can well believe it . . . You see, you've always had it and I haven't. It's given me what I value almost more than anything else in life - independence. You can't think what a comfort it's been to me to think that if I wanted to I could tell anyone in the world to go to hell.”
“. . . Endless duration makes good no better, nor white any whiter. If the rose at noon has lost the beauty it had at dawn, the beauty it had then was real. Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it to the premise of our philosophy. We can none of us step into the same river twice, but the river flows on and the other river we step into is cool and refreshing too.”
“There are psychologists who think that consciousness accompanies brain processes and is determined by them but doesn't itself exert any influence on them. Something like the reflection of a tree in water; it couldn't exist without the tree, but it doesn't in any way affect he tree. I think it's all stuff and nonsense to say that there can be love without passion; when people say love can endure after passion is dead they're talking of something else, affection, kindliness, community of taste and interest, and habit . . . Of course there can be desire without love. Desire isn't passion. Desire is the natural consequence of the sexual instinct . . . That's why women are foolish to make a song and dance if their husbands have an occasional flutter when the time and place are propitious . . . what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose . . . Unless love is passion, it's not love, but something else; and passion thrives not on satisfaction but impediment . . . When passion seizes the heart it invents reasons that seem not only plausible but conclusive to prove that the world is well lost for love. It convinces you that honor is well sacrificed and that shame is a cheap price to pay. Passion is destructive . . . and if it doesn't destroy it dies. It may be then that one is faced with the desolation of knowing that one has wasted the years of one's life, that one's brought disgrace upon oneself, endured the frightful pang of jealousy, swallowed every bitter mortification, that one's expended all one's tenderness, poured out all the riches of one's soul on a poor drab, a fool, a peg on which one hung one's dreams, who wasn't worth a stick of chewing gum.”
“You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection".”
“佩服暖暖認真讀書和寫書評。知道有些人信仰宗教就是為了得到精神上的快樂，人生難測，還是活好當下吧。”+1沒看過這本書，謝謝暖冬的好書評和個人的解讀！““。。。。。。 know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world;。。。。。。” 這段話好像有些意義。~~
“以高更為原型的 The Moon and Sixpence by W Somerset Maugham 法國名作家毛姆的《月亮和六便士》是我在Book Club 精讀書的之一。我們當時好像非常激烈地討論了在生活中你會不會喜歡裏麵的男主人Strickland，也就是Paul Gauguin高更？全書以“我”一個旁觀者的角度，講述了Strickland從倫敦證券交易所職員的正常人的生活，到拋妻棄兒去巴黎學畫的潦倒及最後遠渡重洋到Tahiti世外桃源和當地土著女一起生活作畫的人生的三個階段，有機會一定要去塔希提Tahiti看高更的心願, 看那副 “我們從何處來？我們是誰？我們向何處去”作畫的地方。”
回複 '雲本無心' 的評論 :歡迎新朋友! 我讀的是電子書，直接翻到第一章開始讀，不知道前言裏有一句話話The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard. 所以讀的過程一直在想作者為什麽把書名叫《刀鋒》，回頭來找，才找到這句。我的理解在文章裏寫到一點，人救贖的路就像刀鋒又窄又尖銳，很難走到。像Larry這樣走窄路的人不多，雖然他看破紅塵，但是一路走來也是迷茫的，最後散盡錢財，準備回美國先打零工，等籌夠錢買輛車，準備做taxi driver,以此謀生，同時又可以繼續看世界。個人覺得毛姆在信仰上在宗教上還是委婉的，所以我也覺得，如果不是扉頁上的這句話，是不太容易理解他這個題目的意思的。我也講不透徹。謝謝你的留言。
回複 '7grizzly' 的評論 : I see your point, and I am only pointing it out matter-of-factly (what the novel originally said). A true yogi won't need much money to be independent. In the novel, there was a story of a high-ranking Indian officer who retired from his well-paid job at 50, and went begging (like our 化齋）(I forgot the English word). But it is a rarity. :)
7grizzly 發表評論於
回複 '暖冬cool夏' 的評論 : Thanks for the reply. How much money do you think a yogi needs to have independence? :-)
回複 '7grizzly' 的評論 : Hi, my friend. You have to read your favorite quote here together with the sentence above, i.e. “You attach more importance to money than I do.' If I understand correctly, it means money gives people independence, and with money she can ask anyone to go to hell:)) .
It is said the Indian sage mentioned in the novel is after Ramana Masharshi in real life. I don't know much about him. Throughout the book I don’t think Maugham ever mentioned Buddha, but Yogi(s) a couple of times. Overall the sage gave me an impression of a monk in Tibet. There are more good quotes highlighted in the book, but somehow I could not export them successfully. I also believe you will like this book!
Wow. Love the quotes. The one on independence is my ideal; the one on Americans is refreshing. Thanks for the review. It sounds more interesting than Of Human Bondage. Wonder what he wrote about Buddha.
暖冬cool夏 發表評論於
回複 'ilovefriday' 的評論 : 謝謝這個朋友，這樣看來等圖書館開了，我一定去借了看看。Btw, I lqLove Friday too. It is coming.:))
"The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard."
“The path to Salvation is as narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor's edge.”
"I couldn't go back now. I’m on the threshold. I see vast lands of the spirit stretching out before me , beckoning, and I’m eager to travel them.”
"Well, love isn’t a good sailor and it languishes on a sea voyage. You’ll be surprised when you have the Atlantic between you and Larry to find how slight the pang that before you sailed seemed intolerable.”
“The man I am writing about is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water.”
“I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.”
“Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.”
I suppose it was the end of the world for her when her husband and her baby were killed. I suppose she didn't care what became of her and flung herself into the horrible degradation of drink and promiscuous copulation to get even with life that had treated her so cruelly. She'd lived in heaven and when she lost it she couldn't put up with the common earth of common men, but in despair plunged headlong into hell. I can imagine that if she couldn't drink the nectar of the gods any more she thought she might as well drink bathroom gin.”
“I only wanted to suggest to you that self-confidence is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling. It whirls its victim to destruction in the highest affirmation of his personality. The object doesn't matter; it may be worth while or it may be worthless. No wine is so intoxicating, no love so shattering, no vice so compelling. When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself? At best he can only sacrifice his only begotten son.”
“You attach more importance to money than I do.'
'I can well believe it . . . You see, you've always had it and I haven't. It's given me what I value almost more than anything else in life - independence. You can't think what a comfort it's been to me to think that if I wanted to I could tell anyone in the world to go to hell.”
“. . . Endless duration makes good no better, nor white any whiter. If the rose at noon has lost the beauty it had at dawn, the beauty it had then was real. Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it to the premise of our philosophy. We can none of us step into the same river twice, but the river flows on and the other river we step into is cool and refreshing too.”
“There are psychologists who think that consciousness accompanies brain processes and is determined by them but doesn't itself exert any influence on them. Something like the reflection of a tree in water; it couldn't exist without the tree, but it doesn't in any way affect he tree. I think it's all stuff and nonsense to say that there can be love without passion; when people say love can endure after passion is dead they're talking of something else, affection, kindliness, community of taste and interest, and habit . . . Of course there can be desire without love. Desire isn't passion. Desire is the natural consequence of the sexual instinct . . . That's why women are foolish to make a song and dance if their husbands have an occasional flutter when the time and place are propitious . . . what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose . . . Unless love is passion, it's not love, but something else; and passion thrives not on satisfaction but impediment . . . When passion seizes the heart it invents reasons that seem not only plausible but conclusive to prove that the world is well lost for love. It convinces you that honor is well sacrificed and that shame is a cheap price to pay. Passion is destructive . . . and if it doesn't destroy it dies. It may be then that one is faced with the desolation of knowing that one has wasted the years of one's life, that one's brought disgrace upon oneself, endured the frightful pang of jealousy, swallowed every bitter mortification, that one's expended all one's tenderness, poured out all the riches of one's soul on a poor drab, a fool, a peg on which one hung one's dreams, who wasn't worth a stick of chewing gum.”
“You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection".”