第一篇：《機場里的小旅行》——阿蘭·德波頓讀后感（共）

剛從地鐵站出來，在這個初夏天氣偏熱的日子，四周圍都充滿了浮躁，越發(fā)不想在人多擁擠、忙亂無方向的人群里多呆，管那些人是要趕著上班、趕著談合作，還是趕飛機、趕動車，趕著去接孩子。我只想趕緊出地鐵站透透氣。

很多機會吧，我們會“浪費”一些時間在候車室等汽車、等火車、等飛機，而很少有人會把這部分時間當成享受的時光。所以當我看到作者被邀請要在希思羅機場的第五航站樓待一個星期，并寫出一本書，我想他瘋了嗎？雖然這座航站樓是最新的旅客集散中心，位于倫敦頭號機場的兩條跑道之間，雖然能住在五星級酒店，但天天聽著飛機起飛、降落，我想這也并不是一件很愉快的事情吧。還暗暗擔心這一周能寫出怎么的文字來呢？倒是十分佩服邀請作者進駐的這家跨國公司，在忙碌嘈雜的年代，還愿意投注資金從事一項藝術抱負如此崇高的活動。然而，我們成天的忙碌似乎就忽視了這里面的某些東西，因此，我很感激通過阿蘭·德波頓的文字去感受另一種思路。因為這里可以看到很多與每個人息息相關的：戀愛、旅行、身份焦慮、美與丑以及分離與死亡的經(jīng)驗等等。

整本書分為四個部分：進場—出境大廳—機場限制區(qū)—入境大廳，按照乘飛機的先后順序。這個看似枯燥的過程卻也有那么多故事。

一對情侶在熱情的擁吻。在遠處看似激情的行為，一旦走進卻發(fā)現(xiàn)是傷心欲絕的事情。非凡美貌的女生哭完，和男生對望，再看看時間，于是繞機場走了一圈，繼而走出了機場，卻買了點東西又回來了，互相喂著吃，看似永無止境的道別在時間面前毫無力量，女孩拿起背包，故作鎮(zhèn)定的跑下了走廊，沖進了安全檢查區(qū)。然而在登機前又再一次奔潰落淚。這時，相信很多人在同情這個美麗姑娘的同時也不緊想起了她或者他吧，反正我想起了；

在安檢處，第一次感覺安檢人員是多么苦逼的一個職業(yè)：他們得像驚悚小說家一樣，職責就是把人生想象得比實際上刺激一點，必須把所有人都當成歹徒看待。越是沒有危險的人，比如孕婦、兒童，越要懷疑，也不能對搜查的對象產(chǎn)生太多的好奇，哪怕多看一眼，少了多少美好；

還讓讀者認識了一位在機場做清潔工的安娜·瑪麗，她當初在音樂學校表現(xiàn)杰出，遠在家鄉(xiāng)的親友都以為她早已在英國成了知名的聲樂家……

再來看看那些行李們。我們的經(jīng)歷中，行李提取處是一個很不令人開心的地方。曾經(jīng)有個朋友說：地勤人員一般都習慣性的“扔”行李，多少發(fā)泄下工作的煩悶情緒。而在第五航站樓，對待行李的細心程度少有人能及，行李等待轉機，機器會輕柔的把它們帶到一間宿舍，放在黃色的床墊上，一個行李一個床墊，一點兒也不擁擠，任由它們懶洋洋的等待候機。

而最讓我感慨的是，在機場有一個懺悔室。

作者問牧師：“一般人通常會在什么情況下來找你？”

“找不到路?！?/p>

“他們通常是在哪方面找不到路？”

“噢，都是因為找不到廁所?！?/p>

“旅客應該以什么比較有收獲的方式讓自己度過登機前的最后這段時間？”

牧師態(tài)度堅定，“應該把心思集中在上帝身上?！?/p>

“可如果不信上帝呢？”這樣的問題非常不禮貌。

“死亡的念頭會把我們推向?qū)ξ覀兌宰顬橹匾氖虑?，這種念頭會賦予我們勇氣，促使我們追求內(nèi)心所重視的生活方式。”

難道不是嗎？乘上飛機后，誰知道接下來會發(fā)生什么事情呢？和在家看電視相比，登機之前的這段時間可說是災難的前奏曲。是否愿意在購物袋環(huán)繞下面對永生的世界呢？這樣說不免悲觀，但往往人這么開始想的時候已經(jīng)來不及了。

摘錄：

從一開始寫作，我就缺乏一個明確的定位。在明確知道我想成為哪一類作家之前我只知道我不可能成為哪一類作家。

所謂隨筆作家，就是既能抓住人類生存的各種重大主題，又能以如話家常的親切方式對這些主題進行討論的作家。

抱定為了更好地理解自己以及自己所處的環(huán)境的目的去寫書。

戀愛和閱讀之間或許真的有某種重要的關聯(lián)，兩者提供的樂趣差堪比擬，我們感到的某種關聯(lián)感或許就是基于這個根源。有些書跟我們交流的方式與我們的愛人同等熱烈，而且更加誠實可靠。

馬塞爾·普魯斯特曾說：“事實上，每個讀者只能讀到已然存在于他內(nèi)心的東西。書籍只不過是一種光學儀器，作者將其提供給讀者，以便于他發(fā)現(xiàn)如果沒有這本書的幫助他就發(fā)現(xiàn)不了東西?！辈贿^，書的價值還不止于描繪我們在自己的生活中習見的哪些情感和人物，好書對我們各種感情的描繪遠勝過我們自己的體會，它比我們更了解我們自己。

我讀書時總抱著非常個人的理由：為了幫我更好地生活而讀書。

不過，我自己也不是完全沒有羞于見人的秘密，所以并沒有資格批判別人。

他并不期待對方循規(guī)蹈矩，他知道自己喜愛的這頭狒狒一定會砸毀他的陶器，而且還對這樣的結果樂在其中，因為這樣的寬容恰恰證明了他的權勢。

在他們的表情和話語中，完全想象不到其中一人才剛從地球的另一端飛越了1.1萬公里的距離來到這里?！蟾乓策€是只會和船上人員這么淡淡地打聲招呼。

望著這些屏幕，我們可以想象自己在一時的沖動下走到售票柜臺前，然后不到幾個小時，即可出發(fā)前往某個遙遠的國家。

管理就是通過利誘而不是威逼的方式，導引員工全心投入自己的工作。

從而把快速有效的服務提升到貼心的境界。工作能力雖然能夠通過訓與教導而灌輸給員工，人性的態(tài)度卻無法借由硬性要求而產(chǎn)生。

父母其實是全球資本注意真正的人力資源部門，卻從來沒有人肯定父母在這方面的功勞。（他們培養(yǎng)孩子，生命最早的老師）

人類之所以憤怒，原因是我們過于樂觀，所以才會無法接受人生中必然的各種挫折。

要真正了解其它國家，最好的方法就是到那里工作。

靈感就像膽小的動物。有時候我們必須轉移自己的注意力——也許轉頭望向繁忙的街道或者航站樓——靈感才會從地洞里竄出來。

一般人會想要擦鞋，通常是因為想和過去劃清界限，或是希望外在的改變能夠激發(fā)內(nèi)心的變化。

優(yōu)秀的作家都會突顯出經(jīng)驗中值得注意的方面。若不是經(jīng)由他們的文筆論述，這些細節(jié)恐怕不免淹沒在充斥于我們四周的感官信息里。通過作家的描寫，我們才懂得注意與品嘗身旁的這些經(jīng)驗。

專業(yè)人士面對比較熱衷藝術的人，總是采取這種態(tài)度。在他面前，我覺得自己就像是站在父親面前的小孩，不確定父親對自己是否疼愛。

我看著他那雙平穩(wěn)而厚實的手，心里想著他距離童年已有多么遙遠。

這些監(jiān)管人員就像放不下孩子的父母，只有看到每一架飛機安全降落之后才會感到安心。

一站在行李輸送帶前面，就不禁又想起了人生中的物質(zhì)方面與各種壓力負擔。行李提取大廳與飛機代表了某些基本的二元性——物質(zhì)與心靈、沉重與輕盈、肉體與靈魂。

任何人，不論多么孤獨寂寞，不論對人類多么悲觀，不論多么看重金錢，終究都不免盼望自己重視的人會在入境大廳迎接自己。

就算你心愛的人已經(jīng)表明自己當天必須忙于工作，就算對方說他不喜歡你出遠門，就算對方已經(jīng)在去年6月份和你分手，或是早在XX年半以前就已經(jīng)去世，你還是不禁覺得他們可能會來接機，就只為了給你個驚喜，讓你覺得自己與眾不同（每個人小時候一定都有過這樣的經(jīng)歷，否則我們絕對活不到現(xiàn)在）。

無論是什么，我們都不免忘記：讀過的書、日本的廟宇、盧克索的陵墓、航空公司柜臺前排隊的隊伍，我們自己的愚蠢。于是，我們又會逐漸把快樂寄托于家鄉(xiāng)以外的異地。不久之后，我們又會再次想要收拾行李，想要盼望，想要尖叫。再過不久，我們就又必須重新學習機場帶給我們的重要教訓。

XX-6-2

第二篇：阿蘭·德波頓的雙語名言+中英對照演講稿

阿蘭·德波頓的雙語名言

Perhaps unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.也許不快樂的源泉正來自我們用單一的視角看世界。

Memory was in this respect similar to anticipation: an instrument of simplification and selection.回憶和期待一樣，是一種簡化和剪輯現(xiàn)實的工具。

The key ingredients of happiness could not be material or aesthetic, but must always stubbornly psychological.幸福的關鍵因素并非是物質(zhì)的或?qū)徝赖?，而永遠是心理上的。

Now religions have a much saner attitude to art.They have no trouble telling us what art is about.Art is about two things in all the major faiths.Firstly, it's trying to remind you of what there is to love.And secondly, it's trying to remind you of what there is to fear and to hate.現(xiàn)在有一個更理智的態(tài)度，宗教藝術。他們不難告訴我們什么是藝術。藝術是在所有的主要信仰中的事情。首先，它是試圖提醒你什么是愛。第二，它是在試圖提醒你有什么是恐懼和仇恨。

In the early 19th century, church attendance in Western Europe started sliding down very, very sharply, and people panicked.They asked themselves the following question.They said, where are people going to find the morality, where are they going to find guidance, and where are they going to find sources of consolation? And that's what religions do.They are multinational, as I say, they are branded, they have a clear identity, so they don't get lost in a busy world.在第十九世紀初，西歐教堂開始下滑，非常急劇，人們驚慌失措。他們問自己以下問題。他們說，人們會在哪里找到道德，他們會在哪里找到指導，他們會在哪里找到安慰的來源？

這就是宗教所做的。他們是跨國公司，正如我所說，他們是品牌的，他們有一個明確的身份，所以他們不會在一個忙碌的世界迷失。

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success 阿蘭·德波頓：溫和的成功哲學

英語演講稿中英對照：

For me they normally happen, these career crises, often, actually, on a Sunday evening, just as the sun is starting to set, and the gap between my hopes for myself, and the reality of my life, start to diverge so painfully that I normally end up weeping into a pillow.I'm mentioning all this, I'm mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem.You may think I'm wrong in this, but I think that we live in an age when our lives are regularly punctuated by career crises, by moments when what we thought we knew, about our lives, about our careers, comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality.我經(jīng)常對事業(yè)感到恐慌，周日下午，晚霞灑滿天空，理想和現(xiàn)實的差距，是這樣殘酷，令我沮喪的只想抱頭痛哭，我提出這件事是因為，我認為不只有我這么感覺。你可能不這么認為，但我感覺我們活在一個充滿，事業(yè)恐慌的時代，就在我們認為我們已經(jīng)理解，我們的人生和事業(yè)時，真實便來恐嚇我們，It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living.It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety.I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers.Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're weeping softly into our pillows.One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs.現(xiàn)在或許比以前更容易過上好生活，但卻比以前更難保持冷靜，或不為事業(yè)感到焦慮，今天我想要檢視，我們對事業(yè)感到焦慮，的一些原因，為何我們會變成事業(yè)焦慮的囚徒，不時抱頭痛哭，折磨人的因素之一是，我們身邊的那些勢利鬼，In a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to Oxford from abroad.There is a real problem with snobbery.Because sometimes people from outside the U.K.imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K.phenomenon fixated on country houses and titles.The bad news is that's not true.Snobbery is a global phenomenon.We are a global organization.This is a global phenomenon.It exists.What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are.That is snobbery.對那些來訪牛津大學的外國友人，我有一個壞消息，這里的人都很勢利，有時候英國以外的人會想象，勢利是英國人特有的個性，來自那些鄉(xiāng)間別墅和頭銜爵位，壞消息是，并不只是這樣，勢利是一個全球性的問題，我們是個全球性的組織，這是個全球性的問題，它確實存在。勢利是什么？ 勢利是以一小部分的你，來判別你的全部價值，那就是勢利。

The dominant kind of snobbery that exists nowadays is job snobbery.You encounter it within minutes at a party, when you get asked that famous iconic question of the early 21st century, “What do you do?” And according to how you answer that question, people are either incredibly delighted to see you, or look at their watch and make their excuses.(Laughter)今日最主要的勢利，就是對職業(yè)的勢利，你在派對中不用一分鐘就能體會到，當你被問到這個21世紀初，最有代表性的問題：你是做什么的？ 你的答案將會決定對方接下來的反應，對方可能對你在場感到榮幸，或是開始看表然后想個借口離開，（笑聲）

Now, the opposite of a snob is your mother.(Laughter)Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine, but, as it were, the ideal mother, somebody who doesn't care about your achievements.But unfortunately, most people are not our mothers.Most people make a strict correlation between how much time, and if you like, love--not romantic love, though that may be something--but love in general, respect, they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined by our position in the social hierarchy.勢利鬼的相反，是你的母親，（笑聲），不一定是你我的母親，而是一個理想母親的想象，一個永遠義無反顧的愛你，不在乎你是否功成名就的人，不幸地，大部分世人都不懷有這種母愛，大部分世人決定要花費多少時間，給于多少愛，不一定是浪漫的那種愛，雖然那也包括在內(nèi)，世人所愿意給我們的關愛、尊重，取決于，我們的社會地位，And that's a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers and indeed start caring so much about material goods.You know, we're often told that we live in very materialistic times, that we're all greedy people.I don't think we are particularly materialistic.I think we live in a society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods.It's not the material goods we want.It's the rewards we want.And that's a new way of looking at luxury goods.The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari don't think, “This is somebody who is greedy.” Think, “This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love.” In other words--(Laughter)feel sympathy, rather than contempt.這就是為什么我們?nèi)绱嗽诤跏聵I(yè)和成就，以及看重金錢和物質(zhì)的原因，我們時常被告知我們處在一個物質(zhì)掛帥的時代，我們都是貪婪的人，我并不認為我們特別看重物質(zhì)，而是活在一個，物質(zhì)能帶來大量情感反饋，的時代，我們想要的不是物質(zhì)，而是背后的情感反饋，這賦予奢侈品一個嶄新的意義，下次你看到那些開著法拉利跑車的人，你不要想“這個人很貪婪” 而是“這是一個無比脆弱、急需愛的人” 也就是說 －（笑聲），同情他們，不要鄙視他們，There are other reasons--(Laughter)there are other reasons why it's perhaps harder now to feel calm than ever before.One of these, and it's paradoxical because it's linked to something that's rather nice, is the hope we all have for our careers.Never before have expectations been so high about what human beings can achieve with their lifespan.We're told, from many sources, that anyone can achieve anything.We've done away with the caste system.We are now in a system where anyone can rise to any position they please.And it's a beautiful idea.Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality.We're all basically equal.There are no strictly defined kind of hierarchies.還有一些其他的，（笑聲），還有一些其他理由，讓我們比過去，更難獲得平靜，這有些矛盾因為擁有自己的事業(yè)，是一件不錯的事，但同時 人們也從未對自己的短暫一生，有過這么高的期待，這個世界用許多方法告訴我們 我們無所不能，我們不再受限于階級，而是只要靠著努力，就能攀上我們想到的高度，這是個美麗的理想，出于一種生而平等的精神 我們基本上是平等的，沒有任何明顯的，階級存在，There is one really big problem with this, and that problem is envy.Envy, it's a real taboo to mention envy, but if there is one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy.And it's linked to the spirit of equality.Let me explain.I think it would be very unusual for anyone here, or anyone watching, to be envious of the Queen of England.Even though she is much richer than any of you are.And she's got a very large house.The reason why we don't envy her is because she's too weird.She's simply too strange.We can't relate to her.She speaks in a funny way.She comes from an odd place.So we can't relate to her.And when you can't relate to somebody, you don't envy them.這造成了一個嚴重的問題，這個問題是嫉妒，嫉妒在今日是一種禁忌話題，但這個社會上最普遍的感受，便是嫉妒，嫉妒來自生而平等的精神。這么說吧，我想在場的各位 或是觀看這個影片的眾位，很少有人會嫉妒英國女皇，雖然她比我們都更加富有，住在一個巨大的房子里，我們不會嫉妒她的原因是她太怪異了，她太怪了，我們無法想象自己與她扯上關系，她的語調(diào)令人發(fā)噱，來自一個奇怪的地方，我們與她毫無關聯(lián)。當你認為你與這個人毫無關聯(lián)時，你便不會嫉妒，The closer two people are, in age, in background, in the process of identification, the more there is a danger of envy--which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion--because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with.But the problem, generally, of modern society, is that it turns the whole world into a school.Everybody is wearing jeans, everybody is the same.And yet, they're not.So there is a spirit of equality, combined with deep inequalities.Which makes for a very--can make for a very stressful situation.越是兩個年齡、背景相近的人，越容易陷入嫉妒的苦海，所以千萬避免去參加同學會，因為沒有比同學，更強烈的參照點了，今日社會的問題是，它把全世界變成了一個學校，每個人都穿著牛仔褲，每個人都一樣，但，并非如此，當生而平等的概念遇上現(xiàn)實中懸殊的不平等，巨大的壓力就出現(xiàn)了，It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the 17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy.But the point is, it doesn't feel that way.It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage, you too could start a major thing.(Laughter)And the consequences of this problem make themselves felt in bookshops.When you go to a large bookshop and look at the self-help sections, as I sometimes do, if you analyze self-help books that are produced in the world today, there are basically two kinds.The first kind tells you, “You can do it!You can make it!Anything is possible!” And the other kind tells you how to cope with what we politely call “l(fā)ow self-esteem,” or impolitely call “feeling very bad about yourself.” 今日你變得像比爾-蓋茨一樣，有錢又出名的機會，大概就跟你在十七世紀，成為法國貴族一樣困難，但重點是，感覺卻差別很大，今日的雜志和其它媒體讓我們感覺，只要你有沖勁、對科技有一些新穎的想法，再加上一個車庫，你就可以踏上比爾的道路，（笑聲），我們可以從書店中感受到這些問題所造成的后果，當你像我一樣到大型書店里的，自我?guī)椭鷷?，如果你分析現(xiàn)在出版的這些自我?guī)椭悤?，它們基本上分成兩種，第一種告訴你”你做得到！你能成功！沒有不可能！“，另外一種則教導你如何處理，我們婉轉地稱呼為“缺乏自信” 或是直接了當?shù)胤Q為“自我感覺極差”

There is a real correlationship, a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything and the existence of low self-esteem.So that's another way in which something that is quite positive can have a nasty kickback.There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious, about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before.And it is, again, linked to something nice, and that nice thing is called meritocracy.這兩者中間有著絕對的關聯(lián)，一個告訴人們他們無所不能的社會，和缺乏自信有著絕對的關聯(lián)，這是另一件好事，也會帶來壞影響的例子，還有一些其它原因造成我們對事業(yè)，對我們在世上的地位感到前所未有的焦慮，再一次地，它也和好的概念有關，這個好概念叫做“功績主義“，Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right, agree that meritocracy is a great thing, and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic.In other words, what is a meritocratic society? A meritocratic society is one in which if you've got talent and energy and skill, you will get to the top.Nothing should hold you back.It's a beautiful idea.The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you'll also, by implication, and in a far more nasty way, believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.In other words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental, but merited and deserved.And that makes failure seem much more crushing.現(xiàn)在，無論是左傾還是右傾的政治人物，都同意“功績主義”是個好事，我們應該盡力讓我們的社會崇尚“功績主義” 換句話說，一個崇尚“功績主義”的社會是什么樣的呢？ 一個崇尚功績主義的社會相信，如果你有才能、精力、和技術，你就會飛黃騰達，沒有什么能阻止你，這是個美好的想法。問題是，如果你打從心里相信，那些在社會頂層的人都是精英，同時你也暗示著，以一種殘忍的方法，相信那些在社會底層的人，天生就該在社會底層，換句話說，你在社會的地位不是偶然，而都是你配得的，這種想法讓失敗變得更殘忍，You know, in the Middle Ages, in England, when you met a very poor person, that person would be described as an “unfortunate”--literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate.Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society, they may unkindly be described as a “l(fā)oser.” There is a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser, and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives.It's no longer the gods, it's us.We're in the driving seat.你知道，在中世紀的英國，但你遇見一個非常窮苦的人，你會認為他“不走運” 直接地說，那些不被幸運之神眷顧的人，不幸的人，今日，尤其在美國，如果人們遇見一些社會底層的人，他們被刻薄地形容成“失敗者” “不走運”和“失敗者”中間有很大的差別，這表現(xiàn)了四百年的社會演變，我們對誰該為人生負責看法的改變，神不再掌握我們的命運，我們掌握自己的人生，That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not.It leads, in the worst cases, in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim, it leads to increased rates of suicide.There are more suicides in developed individualistic countries than in any other part of the world.And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally.They own their success.But they also own their failure.如果你做的很好，這是件令人愉快的事，相反的情況，就很令人沮喪，社會學家 Emil Durkheim 分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，這提高了自殺率，追求個人主義的已發(fā)展國家的自殺率，高過于世界上其它地方，原因是人們把發(fā)生在自己身上的事情，全當作自己的責任，人們擁有成功，也擁有失敗，Is there any relief from some of these pressures that I've just been outlining? I think there is.I just want to turn to a few of them.Let's take meritocracy.This idea that everybody deserves to get where they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy.I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway decent meritocratic idea.I am a meritocrat in that sense.But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic.It's an impossible dream.有什么方法可以解決剛才提到的，這些焦慮呢？ 是有的。我想提出幾項，先說“功績主義” 也就是相信每個人的地位忠實呈現(xiàn)他的能力，我認為這種想法太瘋狂了，我可以支持所有相信這個想法的，無論是左傾還是右傾的政治家，我同樣相信功績主義，但我認為一個完全徹底以能力取決地位的社會，是個不可能的夢想，The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded, the good at the top, and the bad at the bottom, and it's exactly done as it should be, is impossible.There are simply too many random factors: accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc.We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should.這種我們能創(chuàng)造一個，每個人的能力都忠實地被分級，好的就到頂端，壞的就到底部，而且保證過程毫無差錯，這是不可能的，這世上有太多偶然的契機，不同的機運，出身，疾病，從天而降的意外等等，我們卻無法將這些因素分級，無法完全忠實的將人分級，I'm drawn to a lovely quote by St.Augustine in “The City of God,” where he says, “It's a sin to judge any man by his post.” In modern English that would mean it's a sin to come to any view of who you should talk to dependent on their business card.It's not the post that should count.According to St.Augustine, it's only God who can really put everybody in their place.And he's going to do that on the Day of Judgment with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open.Insane idea, if you're a secularist person, like me.But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.我很喜歡圣奧古斯丁在“上帝之城”里的一句話，他說“以社會地位評價人是一種罪” 用現(xiàn)在的口吻說，看一個人的名片來決定你是否要和他交談，是罪，對圣奧古斯丁來說，人的價值不在他的社會地位，只有神可以決定一個人的價值，他將在天使圍繞、小號奏鳴，天空破開的世界末日給于最后審判，如果你是像我一樣的世俗論者，這想法太瘋狂了，但這想法有它的價值，In other words, hold your horses when you're coming to judge people.You don't necessarily know what someone's true value is.That is an unknown part of them.And we shouldn't behave as though it is known.There is another source of solace and comfort for all this.When we think about failing in life, when we think about failure, one of the reasons why we fear failing is not just a loss of income, a loss of status.What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others.And it exists.換句話說，最好在你開口評論他人之前懸崖勒馬，你很有可能不知道他人的真正價值，這是不可測的，于是我們不該為人下定論，還有另一種慰藉，當我們想象人生中的失敗，我們恐懼的原因并不只是，失去收入，失去地位，我們害怕的是他人的評論和嘲笑，它的確存在，You know, the number one organ of ridicule nowadays, is the newspaper.And if you open the newspaper any day of the week, it's full of people who've messed up their lives.They've slept with the wrong person.They've taken the wrong substance.They've passed the wrong piece of legislation.Whatever it is.And then are fit for ridicule.In other words, they have failed.And they are described as “l(fā)osers.” Now is there any alternative to this? I think the Western tradition shows us one glorious alternative, and that is tragedy.今日世界上最會嘲笑人的，便是報紙，每天我們打開報紙，都能看到那些把生活搞砸的人，他們與錯誤對象共枕，使用錯誤藥物，通過錯誤法案，種種，讓人在茶余飯后拿來挖苦的新聞，這些人失敗了，我們稱他們?yōu)椤笆≌摺?還有其它做法嗎？ 西方傳統(tǒng)給了我們一個光榮的選擇，就是“悲劇”

Tragic art, as it developed in the theaters of ancient Greece, in the fifth century B.C., was essentially an art form devoted to tracing how people fail, and also according them a level of sympathy, which ordinary life would not necessarily accord them.I remember a few years ago, I was thinking about all this, and I went to see “The Sunday Sport,” a tabloid newspaper that I don't recommend you to start reading if you're not familiar with it already.I went to talk to them about certain of the great tragedies of Western art.I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon.悲劇的藝術來自古希臘，西元前五世紀，這是一個專屬于，描繪人類失敗過程的藝術，同時也加入某種程度的同情，在現(xiàn)代生活并不常給于同情時，幾年前我思考著這件事，我去見“周日運動期刊” 如果你還不認識這個小報，我建議你也別去讀，我去找他們聊聊，西方藝術中最偉大的幾個悲劇故事，我想知道他們會如何露骨地以新聞的方式，在周日下午的新聞臺上，呈現(xiàn)這些經(jīng)典悲劇故事，So I told them about Othello.They had not heard of it but were fascinated by it.(Laughter)And I asked them to write the headline for the story of Othello.They came up with “Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator's Daughter” splashed across the headline.I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary.Again, a book they were enchanted to discover.And they wrote “Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud.”(Laughter)And then my favorite.They really do have a kind of genius all of their own, these guys.My favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King: “Sex With Mum Was Blinding”(Laughter)(Applause)我談到他們從未耳聞的《奧賽羅》，他們嘖嘖稱奇，（笑聲），我要求他們以奧賽羅的故事寫一句頭條，他們寫道“移民因愛生恨，刺殺參議員之女” 大頭條，我告訴他們《包法利夫人》的故事，他們再一次感到驚異萬分，寫道“不倫購物狂信用欺詐，出墻婦女吞砒霜”（笑聲），我最喜歡的是，這些記者真的很有才，我最喜歡的是索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯王》，“與母親的盲目性愛”（笑聲），（掌聲），In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy, you've got the tabloid newspaper.At the other end of the spectrum you've got tragedy and tragic art, and I suppose I'm arguing that we should learn a little bit about what's happening in tragic art.It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser.He is not a loser, though he has lost.And I think that is the message of tragedy to us, and why it's so very, very important, I think.如果同理心的一個極端，是這些八卦小報，另一個極端便是悲劇和悲劇藝術，我想說的是或許我們該從，悲劇藝術中學習，你不會說漢姆雷特是個失敗者，雖然他失敗了，他卻不是一個失敗者，我想這就是悲劇所要告訴我們的，也是我認為非常重要的一點，The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human.We are the first society to be living in a world where we don't worship anything other than ourselves.We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should.We've put people on the moon.We've done all sorts of extraordinary things.And so we tend to worship ourselves.現(xiàn)代社會讓我們焦慮的，另一個緣故是，我們除了人類以外沒有其它重心，我們是從古至今的第一個無神社會，除了我們自己以外，我們不膜拜任何事物，我們對自己評價極高，為什么不呢，我們把人送上月球，達成了許多不可思議的事，我們習慣崇拜自己，Our heroes are human heroes.That's a very new situation.Most other societies have had, right at their center, the worship of something transcendent: a god, a spirit, a natural force, the universe, whatever it is, something else that is being worshiped.We've slightly lost the habit of doing that, which is, I think, why we're particularly drawn to nature.Not for the sake of our health, though it's often presented that way, but because it's an escape from the human anthill.It's an escape from our own competition, and our own dramas.And that's why we enjoy looking at glaciers and oceans, and contemplating the Earth from outside its perimeters, etc.We like to feel in contact with something that is non-human, and that is so deeply important to us.我們的英雄是人類，這是一個嶄新的情況，歷史中大部分的社會重心，都是敬拜一位人類以外的靈體，神，自然力、宇宙，總之是人類以外的什么，我們逐漸失去了這種習慣，我想這也是我們越來越被大自然吸引的原因，雖然我們時常顯示是為了健康，但我不這么認為，我認為是為了逃避人群的蟻丘，逃避人們的瘋狂競爭，我們的戲劇化，這便是為什么我們?nèi)绱讼矚g看海、觀賞冰山，從外太空觀賞地球等等，我們希望重新和那些“非人類”的事物有所連接，那對我們來說很重要，What I think I've been talking about really is success and failure.And one of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means.If I said to you that there is somebody behind the screen who is very very successful, certain ideas would immediately come to mind.You would think that person might have made a lot of money, achieved renown in some field.My own theory of success--and I'm somebody who is very interested in success.I really want to be successful.I'm always thinking, “How could I be more successful?” But as I get older, I'm also very nuanced about what that word “success” might mean.我一直在談論成功和失敗，成功的有趣之處是，我們時常以為我們知道成功是什么，如果我現(xiàn)在說，這個屏幕后面站著一個非常成功的人，你心里馬上就會產(chǎn)生一些想法，你會想，這個人可能很有錢，在某些領域赫赫有名，我對成功的理解是，首先，我是一個對成功非常有興趣的人，我想要成功，我總是想著“要怎樣我才能更成功？” 但當我漸漸長大，我越來越疑惑，究竟什么是“成功”的真正意義，Here's an insight that I've had about success.You can't be successful at everything.We hear a lot of talk about work-life balance.Nonsense.You can't have it all.You can't.So any vision of success has to admit what it's losing out on, where the element of loss is.I think any wise life will accept, as I say, that there is going to be an element where we are not succeeding.我對成功有一些觀察，你不可能在所有事情上成功，我們常聽到有關工作和休閑的平衡，鬼話。你不可能全部擁有。你就是不能。所有對成功的想象，必須承認他們同時也失去了一些東西，放棄了一些東西，我想一個智者能接受，如我所說，總是有什么是我們得不到的，Thing about a successful life is, a lot of the time, our ideas of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own.They are sucked in from other people: chiefly, if you're a man, your father, and if you're a woman, your mother.Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years.No one is quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe that that's true.常常，我們對一個成功，人生的想象，不是來自我們自己，而是來自他人，如果你是個男人，你會以父親做榜樣，如果你是個女人，你會以母親做榜樣，精神分析已經(jīng)重復說了80年，但很少有人真正聽進去。但我的確相信這件事，And we also suck in messages from everything from the television, to advertising, to marketing, etc.These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves.When we're told that banking is a very respectable profession a lot of us want to go into banking.When banking is no longer so respectable, we lose interest in banking.We are highly open to suggestion.我們也會從電視、廣告，各樣的市場宣傳中，得到我們對成功的想象，這些東西影響了我們，對我們自己的看法、我們想要什么，當我們聽說銀行業(yè)是個受人尊敬的行業(yè)，許多人便加入銀行業(yè)，當銀行業(yè)不再受人尊敬，我們便對銀行業(yè)失去興趣，我們很能接受建議，So what I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but we should make sure that they are our own.We should focus in on our ideas.and make sure that we own them, that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions.Because it's bad enough, not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of a journey, that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along.我想說的是，我們不該放棄，我們對成功的想象，但必須確定那些都是我們自己想要的，我們應該專注于我們自己的目標，確定這目標是我們真正想要的，確定這個夢想藍圖出自自己筆下，因為得不到自己想要的已經(jīng)夠糟糕了，更糟糕的是，在人生旅程的終點，發(fā)覺你所追求的，從來就不是你真正想要的。

So I'm going to end it there.But what I really want to stress is by all means, success, yes.But let's accept the strangeness of some of our ideas.Let's probe away at our notions of success.Let's make sure our ideas of success are truly our own.Thank you very much.(Applause)我必須在這里做個總結，但我真正想說的是，成功是必要的，但請接受自己怪異的想法，朝著自己對成功的定義出發(fā)，確定我們對成功的定義都是出于自己的真心，非常謝謝各位，（鼓掌），Chris Anderson: That was fascinating.How do you reconcile this idea of someone being--it being bad to think of someone as a loser with the idea, that a lot of people like, of seizing control of your life.And that a society that encourages that perhaps has to have some winners and losers.Chris Anderson: 說的真好。你要如何，與自己和解，把一個人稱為失敗者是糟糕的，但許多人都想掌握自己的生活，一個追求這些的社會，難免要有贏家和輸家。

Alain de Botton: Yes.I think it's merely the randomness of the winning and losing process that I wanted to stress.Because the emphasis nowadays is so much on the justice of everything, and politicians always talk about justice.Now I am a firm believer in justice, I just think that it is impossible.So we should do everything we can, we should do everything we can to pursue it.But at the end of the day we should always remember that whoever is facing us, whatever has happened in their lives, there will be a strong element of the haphazard.And it's that that I'm trying to leave room for.Because otherwise it can get quite claustrophobic.阿蘭·德波頓: 是的，我只是想提出在輸贏的過程中，有太多偶然，今日我們太講求，所有事情的正義和公平，政治人物總是在談論正義，我非常支持正義，我只是覺得那不可能，我們應該盡力，盡力去追求正義，但我們也應該記得，我們所面對的，無論在他們?nèi)松邪l(fā)生過什么，偶然總是一個強烈的因素，我希望大家留一點空間這么想，不然真令人有一種幽閉恐怖癥的感覺，CA: I mean, do you believe that you can combine your kind of kinder, gentler philosophy of work with a successful economy? Or do you think that you can't? But it doesn't matter that much that we're putting too much emphasis on that? Chris Anderson: 我是說，你是否相信，在這種溫和的哲學下，可以產(chǎn)生一個發(fā)達的經(jīng)濟？ 還是你認為那不可行？ 還是我們這樣反復提醒人們也不甚重要？

AB: The nightmare thought is that frightening people is the best way to get work out of them, and that somehow the crueler the environment the more people will rise to the challenge.You want to think, who would you like as your ideal dad? And your ideal dad is somebody who is tough but gentle.And it's a very hard line to make.We need fathers, as it were, the exemplary father figures in society, avoiding the two extremes, which is the authoritarian, disciplinarian, on the one hand, and on the other, the lax, no rules option.阿蘭·德波頓: 夢魘是相信，恐嚇人們是刺激他們發(fā)奮的最好辦法，或是環(huán)境越殘酷，就會有越多人接受挑戰(zhàn)，你必須想，你的理想父親是怎樣的？ 你的理想父親往往是嚴厲又溫和的，雖然這界限很難畫定，我們社會需要的模范性人物，是像一個理想父親，不要走極端，不要完全集權、純粹紀律，也不要模糊馬虎，亂無規(guī)章，CA: Alain de Botton.Chris Anderson: 阿蘭·德波頓。

AB: Thank you very much.(Applause)阿蘭·德波頓：謝謝各位。（鼓掌），