暖冬cool夏
這裏一年四季溫暖如春，沒有酷暑沒有嚴寒......
"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".”
【刀鋒】這樣的書其實是我的最愛。這個世界其實存在著無數超自然的現象，應該確切地說是超人類想象的自然現象。人類難以接受很多解釋不了的事是因為人類太習慣於用所學的東西來分析和思考了，從而忽略了人和所有動物都有的一種本能，那就是直覺。思考得越多，人的直覺就越被忽視，久而久之，人的第六感覺也就被廢棄了。看看現在，我們對自然的了解太少了，連蝙蝠身上的一個小小的病毒都搞不定。
謝謝書評分享，問好！：））
喜歡暖兒的書評和留言中與網友的互動，裏麵的許多見解和感悟真是非常精彩。像主人公Larry這樣的人，上下求索的結果，最後會不會把自己給繞進去，反倒繞糊塗了呢？:-)
暖冬周末快樂！
居家之後我的生活缺乏規律，鍛煉少了，書也沒時間聽了，關鍵是還不愛做飯，時間都被我浪費掉了。
我現在對名著敬而遠之，因此不讀書評了，抱歉。
毛姆的作品都挺喜歡的，放一段我原來寫的：
“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。”
毛姆的《刀鋒》也是原來寫過的讀書會裏讀的書，現在再回想起來，竟然覺得裏麵的主人公拉裏和《月亮與六便士》Strickland有著驚人的相似，他們離家出走，又都是精神上的流浪者，Strickland去大溪地畫畫，拉裏去印度朝聖，他們都對生活感到迷憫，試圖探索人生的終極價值。。。“
zhuc 發表評論於 2020-04-22 16:38:35
這三本書裏我倒是最喜歡《刀鋒》。
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+1 我也最喜歡刀鋒，同時開始追逐維特根斯坦，雖然隻是個“據說”的原型
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!
保重！
這三本書裏我倒是最喜歡《刀鋒》。
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萊蒙托夫的當代英雄，田德裏亞科夫的月蝕