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Right and left have much cause to criticize government.
左右两派都有很多理由对政府提出批评。
For the right, as Ronald Reagan famously said, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
对右派来说，正如罗纳德•里根的名言所说，“英语里最可怕的九个词就是:I’m from the government and I’m here to help.(我是政府派来帮你的。）”
For the left, government has failed to tame the cruelty of markets and lift the poor out of their misery.
而对于左派来说，政府没能够驾驭住市场的残酷，未能帮助穷人摆脱他们的痛苦。
From their different perspectives, both sides complain that government regulation is often costly and ineffectual.
双方从不同的角度都抱怨政府的调控常常成本巨大但却收效甚微。
Yet, even if it is often inefficient and self-serving, it also embodies moral progress.
然而，即便它常常效率很低，而且常常为自己谋利，它仍然代表着道德的进步。
That is the significance of the assertion, in the American Declaration of Independence, that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."
《美国独立宣言》里声明“人人都生来平等，都享有造物主赋予的不可剥夺的权利”的意义就在于此。
It is the significance of laws guaranteeing free speech, universal suffrage, and equality before the law.
那些保证言论自由、普选权和法律面前人人平等的法律的意义也在于此。
And it is the significance of courts that can hold states to account when they, inevitably, fail to match the standards that they have set for themselves.
当政府有一天不可避免地达不到为自己设定的标准时，法院能让政府做出解释的意义也在于此。
Such values are the institutional face of the fundamental engines of progress—"moral sensibility."
这些价值观念是进步的根本动力——“道德观念”——在制度方面的体现。
The very idea probably sounds quaint and old-fashioned,
这种想法本身很可能听起来有些古怪和过时，
but it is the subject of a powerful book by Susan Neiman, an American philosopher living in Germany.
但它却正是苏珊•尼曼，一位生活在德国的美国哲学家，所写的一本颇具影响力的书的主题。
