The True Nobility By Ernest Hemingway

In a calm sea every man is a pilot.But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest - it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.

在風平浪靜的大海上,每個人都是領航員。但只有陽光沒有陰影,只有快樂沒有痛苦,根本不是真正的生活。就拿最幸福的人來說,他的生活也是一團纏結在一起的亂麻。痛苦與幸福交替出現,使得我們一會悲傷一會高興。甚至死亡本身都使得生命更加可愛。在人生清醒的時刻,在悲傷與失落的陰影之下,人們與真實的自我最為接近。

In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.To regret one’s errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

在生活和事業的種種事務之中，性格比才智更能指導我們，心靈比頭腦更能引導我們，而由判斷獲得的克制、耐心和教養比天分更能讓我們受益。我一向認為，內心生活開始更為嚴謹的人，他的外在生活也會變得更為簡樸。在物欲橫流的年代，但愿我能向世人表明：人類的真正需求少得多么可憐。反思自己的過錯不至于重蹈覆轍才是真正的悔悟。高人一等并沒有什么值得夸耀的。真正的高貴是優于過去的自己。