The Road To Happiness

It is a commonplace among moralists that you cannot get happiness by pursuing it. This is only true if you pursue it unwisely. Gamblers at Monte Carlo are pursuing money, and most of them lose it instead, but there are other ways of pursuing money, which often succeed. So it is with happiness. If you pursue it by means of drink, you are forgetting the hang-over. Epicurus pursued it by living only in congenial society and eating only dry bread, supplemented by a little cheese on feast days. His method proved successful in his case, but he was a valetudinarian, and most people would need something more vigorous. For most people, the pursuit of happiness, unless supplemented in various ways, is too abstract and theoretical to be adequate as a personal rule of life. But I think that whatever personal rule of life you may choose it should not, except in rare and heroic cases, be incompatible with happiness.

There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income, and who, nevertheless, are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the fault must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from the animals than we are. Animals live on impulse, and are happy as long as external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for an occasional night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis in instinct. In civilized societies, especially in English-speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective, and restrain all impulses that do not minister to it. A businessman may be so anxious to grow rich that to this end he sacrifices health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no pleasure remains to him except harrying other people by exhortations to imitate his noble example. Many rich ladies, although nature has not endowed them with any spontaneous pleasure in literature or art, decide to be thought cultured, and spend boring hours learning the right thing to say about fashionable new books that are written to give delight, not to afford opportunities for dusty snobbism. ( to be continued)

中文：

道德家們常說：幸福靠追求是得不到的。只有用不明智的方式去追求才是這樣。蒙特卡洛城的賭徒們追求金錢，但多數人卻把錢輸掉了，而另外一些追求金錢的辦法卻常常成功。追求幸福也是一樣。如果你通過暢飲來追求幸福，那你就忘記了酒醉后的不適。埃畢丘魯斯追求幸福的辦法是只和志趣相投的人一起生活，只吃不涂黃油的面包，節日才加一點奶酪。他的辦法對他來說是成功的，但他是個體弱多病的人，而多數人需要的是精力充沛。就多數人來說，除非你有別的補充辦法，這樣追求快樂就過于抽象和脫離實際，不宜作為個人的生活準則。不過，我覺得無論你選擇什么樣的生活準則，除了那些罕見的和英雄人物的例子外，都應該是和幸福相容的。

很多人擁有獲得幸福的全部物質條件，即健康的身體和豐足的收入，可是他們非常不快樂。就這種情況來說，似乎問題處在生活理論的錯誤上。從某種意義上講，我們可以說任何關于生活的理論都是不正確的。我們和動物的區別并沒有我們想象的那么大。動物是憑沖動生活的，只要客觀條件有利，它們就會快樂。如果你有一只貓，它只要有東西吃，感到暖和，偶爾晚上得到機會去尋歡，它就會很快活。你的需要比你的貓要復雜一些，但還是以本能為基礎的。在文明社會中，特別是在講英語的社會中，這一點很容易被忘卻。人們給自己定下一個最高的目標，對一切不利于實現這一目標的沖動都加以克制。生意人可能因為切望發財以致不惜犧牲健康和愛情。等他終于發了財，他除了苦苦勸人效法他的好榜樣而攪得別人心煩外，并沒有得到快樂。很多有錢的貴婦人，盡管自然并未賦予她們任何欣賞文學或藝術的興趣，卻決意要使別人認為她們是有教養的，于是他們花費很多煩人的時間學習怎樣談論那些流行的新書。這些書寫出來是要給人以樂趣的，而不是要給人以附庸風雅的機會的。（待續）

The Road To Happiness
It is a commonplace among moralists that you cannot get happiness by pursuing it. This is only true if you pursue it unwisely. Gamblers at Monte Carlo are pursuing money, and most of them lose it instead, but there are other ways of pursuing money, which often succeed. So it is with happiness. If you pursue it by means of drink, you are forgetting the hang-over. Epicurus pursued it by living only in congenial society and eating only dry bread, supplemented by a little cheese on feast days. His method proved successful in his case, but he was a valetudinarian, and most people would need something more vigorous. For most people, the pursuit of happiness, unless supplemented in various ways, is too abstract and theoretical to be adequate as a personal rule of life. But I think that whatever personal rule of life you may choose it should not, except in rare and heroic cases, be incompatible with happiness.
There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income, and who, nevertheless, are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the fault must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from the animals than we are. Animals live on impulse, and are happy as long as external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for an occasional night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis in instinct. In civilized societies, especially in English-speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective, and restrain all impulses that do not minister to it. A businessman may be so anxious to grow rich that to this end he sacrifices health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no pleasure remains to him except harrying other people by exhortations to imitate his noble example. Many rich ladies, although nature has not endowed them with any spontaneous pleasure in literature or art, decide to be thought cultured, and spend boring hours learning the right thing to say about fashionable new books that are written to give delight, not to afford opportunities for dusty snobbism. ( to be continued)
中文：
道德家們常說：幸福靠追求是得不到的。只有用不明智的方式去追求才是這樣。蒙特卡洛城的賭徒們追求金錢，但多數人卻把錢輸掉了，而另外一些追求金錢的辦法卻常常成功。追求幸福也是一樣。如果你通過暢飲來追求幸福，那你就忘記了酒醉后的不適。埃畢丘魯斯追求幸福的辦法是只和志趣相投的人一起生活，只吃不涂黃油的面包，節日才加一點奶酪。他的辦法對他來說是成功的，但他是個體弱多病的人，而多數人需要的是精力充沛。就多數人來說，除非你有別的補充辦法，這樣追求快樂就過于抽象和脫離實際，不宜作為個人的生活準則。不過，我覺得無論你選擇什么樣的生活準則，除了那些罕見的和英雄人物的例子外，都應該是和幸福相容的。
很多人擁有獲得幸福的全部物質條件，即健康的身體和豐足的收入，可是他們非常不快樂。就這種情況來說，似乎問題處在生活理論的錯誤上。從某種意義上講，我們可以說任何關于生活的理論都是不正確的。我們和動物的區別并沒有我們想象的那么大。動物是憑沖動生活的，只要客觀條件有利，它們就會快樂。如果你有一只貓，它只要有東西吃，感到暖和，偶爾晚上得到機會去尋歡，它就會很快活。你的需要比你的貓要復雜一些，但還是以本能為基礎的。在文明社會中，特別是在講英語的社會中，這一點很容易被忘卻。人們給自己定下一個最高的目標，對一切不利于實現這一目標的沖動都加以克制。生意人可能因為切望發財以致不惜犧牲健康和愛情。等他終于發了財，他除了苦苦勸人效法他的好榜樣而攪得別人心煩外，并沒有得到快樂。很多有錢的貴婦人，盡管自然并未賦予她們任何欣賞文學或藝術的興趣，卻決意要使別人認為她們是有教養的，于是他們花費很多煩人的時間學習怎樣談論那些流行的新書。這些書寫出來是要給人以樂趣的，而不是要給人以附庸風雅的機會的。（待續）