评论
打印
The public story of selfishness tells us that we are - all of us - very guilty of the behaviour.
大家所熟知的关于自私的故事告诉我们--我们所有人--都应对这种行为感到非常内疚。
We are apparently incurably addicted to our own satisfactions - and deserve to be compared unfavourably to pretty much any generation that ever walked the earth.
显然，我们无法避免地沉迷于自我的满足——与地球上几乎任何一代人相比，我们都应该受到不利的比较。
It sounds compelling (self-flagellation usually does), but the reality may be somewhat different.
这听起来很有说服力(自我鞭笞通常是这样的)，但现实可能有些不同。
Whatever the risks of excessive self-absorption and inordinate pleasure-seeking,
无论过度专注自我和过度享乐的风险有多大，
the real danger for most people is not that they too often ignore society and other people in the name of their own needs,
对大多数人来说，真正的危险不是他们经常以自我需求的名义忽视社会和他人，
it’s precisely the opposite: that they constantly put aside self-exploration and authentic inner development for the whims of so-called respectable opinion and socially sanctioned duties and commitments.
恰恰相反:他们总是把自我探索和真正的内在发展放在一边，而去追求所谓的受人尊敬的观点和社会认可的责任和承诺。
The chief problem is not that we’re too selfish; we’re poor versions of what we might be because we’re not selfish enough.
主要的问题不是我们太自私; 我们可能是我们的可怜版本，因为我们不够自私。
We spend our lives seeing people we have nothing in common with,
我们一生都在和毫无共同之处的人打交道，
working at jobs that don’t make sense to us, craving the approval of parental figures who have other priorities,
做着对我们来说没有意义的工作，渴望父母的认可，而他们有其他的优先事项，
going to parties we fear, sucking up to colleagues we hate, going to films that bore us, parroting opinions we’re suspicious of,
参加我们害怕的派对，对我们讨厌的同事拍马屁，观看让我们厌烦的电影，鹦鹉学舌地模仿我们怀疑的观点，
taking holidays that we don’t enjoy and devoting ourselves to children who end up either indifferent or plain resentful about the care we’ve devoted to them.
我们把自己不喜欢的假期奉献给孩子们，而孩子们对我们为他们付出的关怀要么漠不关心，要么愤愤不平。
Finally, in the last decade or so of life, we may try to ‘live for ourselves,’ but by then, it’s almost always too late.
最后，在生命的最后十年左右，我们可能试着“为自己而活”，但到那时，几乎总是太晚了。
Our connections to our own tastes and centers of pleasure and interest have atrophied, we’ve forgotten how to be ambitious in our names, we have frittered ourselves away through millions of demands.
我们与自己的品味以及快乐和兴趣的联系已经萎缩，我们忘记了如何以自己的名义雄心勃勃，我们已经在数百万的需求中浪费了自己。
We are alive, but we hardly exist any longer.
我们活着，但我们几乎不再存在。
We settle on golf.
我们决定打高尔夫球。
A priority, while time allows, is therefore to acquire the skill of being politely but energetically more selfish.
因此，在时间允许的情况下，首先要学会礼貌而又积极地更加自私的技巧。
We should - from today - simply stop seeing people we dislike and stop worrying to such an extent about the opinions of strangers.
从今天开始，我们应该直接不再与我们不喜欢的人交往，不再担心陌生人的看法。
We should focus on what feels meaningful to us.
我们应该专注于我们觉得有意义的事情。
We should ask ourselves what we will wish we had done when we are on our deathbeds - and do it now.
我们应该问问自己，当我们临终之时，我们希望做了什么——现在就做吧。
We should wonder what we would do next if we had blanket permission - and go ahead and do it anyway.
我们应该想知道，如果我们得到了全面的许可，我们下一步会做什么——不管怎样，我们都要去做。
We probably know the life we should be leading already, we have just been hoping - and should stop hoping - that someone or something would come down from the sky and give us a definitive seal of approval.
我们可能已经知道我们应该过什么样的生活，我们只是一直希望——应该不再希望——某个人或某物会从天而降，给我们一个明确的认可。
We should acquire the art of being difficult, of smiling less, of saying ‘no’ more often and of leaving the room when we want to.
我们应该学会这样一种不容易相处的艺术: 少微笑，多说“不”，想离开房间时就离开。
The world won’t fall apart if we neglect some of our commitments;
即使我们忽视我们的一些承诺，这个世界也不会崩溃;
perhaps we can afford to forget someone’s birthday or to let the house get in a mess, fail to prepare a meal or suggest that a grumpy relative make their own way back from the station.
也许我们可以忘记某人的生日，或者把房子弄得一团糟，没有准备好一顿饭，或者建议一个脾气暴躁的亲戚从车站自己回来。
We have grown quietly ill, or at least dull of spirit, through constant acts of self-sacrifice.
不断的自我牺牲，我们会悄悄地生病，或者至少精神上变得迟钝了。
We no longer have as many years ahead as we once did.
我们不再像过去那样有那么多年的未来。
We have been ‘good’ for an age.
我们做了“好”人好多年了。
We have allowed our fear of boundless egoism to blind us to the importance of developing faith in ourselves.
我们让恐惧无限利己主义的观点蒙蔽了我们，使我们忽视了培养信心的重要性。
It may be time to take some baby steps towards intelligent selfishness.
也许是时候向聪明的自私迈出一小步了。
