16 Man Is Here for the Sake of Other Men

Albert Einstein

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.

From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know that man is here for the sake of other men—above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.

To ponder interminably over the reason for one's own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly. And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment. The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort and happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.

难词释义

divine [dɪˈvaɪn] v. 猜到；领悟

earnest [ˈɜːrnɪst] adj. 非常认真的；真诚的

ponder [ˈpɑːndər] v. 沉思；考虑

interminably [ɪnˈtɜːrmɪnəbli] adv. 没完没了地

aspiration [ˌæspəˈreɪʃn] n. 渴望；抱负

为他人而活

阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦

人在这世上的处境真是奇异。每个人都只来这世上做一次短暂的访问，却不知自己为何而来，然而有时候却似乎能探寻出一种目的。

从日常生活的角度来看，有一件事我们很清楚，那就是人活在世上，是为他人而活着，尤其是那些我们把自身幸福寄托在其微笑和健康上的人，以及无数由于同情心而使我们与其命运紧密相连的人。每天都有很多次，我察觉到自己的外在生活和精神生活是如何建立在他人——包括生者和死者——的劳动之上，以及自己必须如何奋发努力，从而使我们从别人那里获取多少，也可以给予别人同样的回报。我时常怀着一种惴惴不安的忧郁心情，觉得自己从别人的工作中承袭了太多。

没完没了地沉思自己的生存理由和人生意义，客观来讲，是近乎愚蠢的行为。但每个人都有一些自己的理念指引他的追求和判断。经常在我眼前闪耀发光，并使我充满了快乐的理念就是真、善、美。我从来没有以追求舒适和幸福作为生活的目标，建立在这个基础之上的一套道德规范，只能满足一群动物的需求。