今天翻了翻那本著名的《美国大城市的死和生》，在卷首发现了作者引用的这样的一段文字，很喜欢，算是个意外的惊喜：
除了无条件地接受宇宙之秩序外，
近来我最赞赏的文明之功绩
是他造就了艺术家、诗人、哲学家和科学家。
但是，我现在认为
文明最伟大之处并不在于此
而在于这芸芸众生
都能直接感受到的事物。
人们常说
我们沉溺于生活的方式，我却要说
文明的价值就在于让生活方式更加复杂；
人们的衣食住行需要的不仅是努力工作，
还要用头脑思考，而不只是简简单单、
互不关联的行为。因为
更复杂、更深入的思考
意味着更充实、更丰富的生活，
意味着旺盛的生命。生活本身就是目的。
若问生活有价值否，唯一答案
就是你是否拥有足够的生活。
还有一点不能忘记。我们每个人
都已濒临绝望，我们正在漩涡中下沉。
托起我们身体使我们浮出水面的，
是希望，是对生活的价值
和我们的努力的不可解释的信念，
是心灵深处源自我们力量之发挥的潜意识。
费了好大的劲搜到了原文，写这段话的人是Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.美国的一个大法官。
Until lately, the best thing that I was able to think of in favor of
civilization, apart from blind acceptance of the order of the universe,
was that it made possible the artist, the poet, and the man of science.
But I think that is not the greatest thing.
Now I believe that the greatest thing is a matter that comes directly home to us all.
When it is said that we are too much occupied with the means of living
to live, I answer that the chief worth of civilization is just that it
makes the means of living more complex; that it calls for great and
combined intellectual efforts, instead of simple, uncoordinated ones,
in order that the crowd may be fed and clothed and housed and moved
from place to place. Because more complex and intense intellectual
efforts mean a fuller and richer life.
They mean more life.
Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have enough of it.
I will add but a word.
We are all very near despair.
The sheathing that floats us over its waves is compounded of hope,
faith in the unexplainable worth and sure issue of effort, and the
deep, sub-conscious content which comes from the exercise of our powers.
除了无条件地接受宇宙之秩序外，
近来我最赞赏的文明之功绩
是他造就了艺术家、诗人、哲学家和科学家。
但是，我现在认为
文明最伟大之处并不在于此
而在于这芸芸众生
都能直接感受到的事物。
人们常说
我们沉溺于生活的方式，我却要说
文明的价值就在于让生活方式更加复杂；
人们的衣食住行需要的不仅是努力工作，
还要用头脑思考，而不只是简简单单、
互不关联的行为。因为
更复杂、更深入的思考
意味着更充实、更丰富的生活，
意味着旺盛的生命。生活本身就是目的。
若问生活有价值否，唯一答案
就是你是否拥有足够的生活。
还有一点不能忘记。我们每个人
都已濒临绝望，我们正在漩涡中下沉。
托起我们身体使我们浮出水面的，
是希望，是对生活的价值
和我们的努力的不可解释的信念，
是心灵深处源自我们力量之发挥的潜意识。
费了好大的劲搜到了原文，写这段话的人是Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.美国的一个大法官。
Until lately, the best thing that I was able to think of in favor of
civilization, apart from blind acceptance of the order of the universe,
was that it made possible the artist, the poet, and the man of science.
But I think that is not the greatest thing.
Now I believe that the greatest thing is a matter that comes directly home to us all.
When it is said that we are too much occupied with the means of living
to live, I answer that the chief worth of civilization is just that it
makes the means of living more complex; that it calls for great and
combined intellectual efforts, instead of simple, uncoordinated ones,
in order that the crowd may be fed and clothed and housed and moved
from place to place. Because more complex and intense intellectual
efforts mean a fuller and richer life.
They mean more life.
Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have enough of it.
I will add but a word.
We are all very near despair.
The sheathing that floats us over its waves is compounded of hope,
faith in the unexplainable worth and sure issue of effort, and the
deep, sub-conscious content which comes from the exercise of our powers.
