To be or not to be
Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: "I think, therefore am."
But the best definition of existence ever saw did another philosopher who said: "To be is to be in relations." If this true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately, we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead.
Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest--even more, a new accomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy; the real pessimist is the person who has lost interest.
Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, new friends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your life be also. If your thoughts are confined only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow car-conscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you are living in China~ if you’re interested in the characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly interesting people, if you listen intently to find music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination.
To be or not to be--to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let live!
生存還是毀滅
「生存還是毀滅。」如果把《聖經》除外，這六個字便是整個世界文學中最有名的六個字了。這六個字是哈姆雷特一次喃喃自語時說的，而這六個字也就成了莎士比亞作品中最有名的幾個字了，因為這裡哈姆雷特不僅道出了他自己的心聲，同時也代表了一切有思想的男男女女。是活還是不活——是要生活還是不要生活，是要生活得豐滿充實，興致勃勃，還是只是活得枯燥委瑣，貧乏無味。一位哲人一次曾想弄清他自己是否是在活著，這個問題我們每個人也大可不時地問問我們自己。這位哲學家對此的答案是：「我思故我在。」
但是關於生存我所見過的一條最好的定義卻是另一位哲學家下的：「生活即是聯繫。」如果這話不假的話，那麼一個有生命者的聯繫越多，它也就越有生氣。所謂要活得豐富充實也即是要擴大和加強我們的各種聯繫。不幸的是，我們往往會因為天性不夠豐厚而容易陷入自己的陳規舊套。試問除去我們的日常工作，我們的真正生活又有多少?如果你只是對你的日常工作才有興趣，那你的生趣也就很有限了。至於在其它事物方面，比如詩歌、散文、音樂、美術、體育、無私的友誼、政治與國際事務，等等——你只是死人一個。
但反過來說，每當你獲得一種新的興趣——甚至一項新的造詣——你就增長了你的生活本領。一個能對許許多多事物都深感興趣的人是不可能總不愉快的，真正的悲觀者只能是那些喪失興趣的人。
培根曾講過，一個人失去朋友即是死亡。但是憑著交往，憑著新朋，我們就能獲得再生。這條對於活人可謂千真萬確的道理在一定程度上也完全適用於人的思想，它們也都是活的。你的思想所在，你的生命便也在那裡。如果你的思想不出你的業務範圍，不出你的物質利益，不出你所在城鎮的狹隘圈子，那麼你的一生便也只是多方受著局限的狹隘的一生。但是如果你對當前中國那裡所發生的種種感到興趣，那麼你便可說也活在中國；如果你對一本佳妙小說中的人物感到興趣，你便是活在一批極有趣的人們中間；如果你能全神貫注地聽點好的音樂，你就會超脫出你的周圍環境而活在一個充滿激情與想像的神奇世界之中。
生存還是毀滅——活得熱烈活得豐富，還是只是簡單存在，這就全在我們自己。但願我們都能不斷擴展和增強我們的各種聯繫。只要一天我們活著，就要一天是在活著。
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