英語勵志文章：人們行善是爲了什麼

What Are People Good For

人們行善是爲了什麼?

One's beliefs are revealed not so much in words or in formal creeds as in the assumptions on which one habitually acts and in the basic values by which all choices are tested.

The cornerstone of my own value system was laid in childhood with parents who believed that personal integrity came first. They never asked, ”What will people think?” The question was,“What will you think of yourself, if you do this or fail to do that?” Thus, living up to one’s own conception of one’s self became a basic value, and the question, “What will people think,” took a subordinate place.

人類的信仰並非全是通過言辭或形式的教條，以及對一個人行爲習慣的設想或其做出選擇所依據的價值觀所體現出來的。

孩提時，父母的教誨正是我個人基本價值觀的來源，他們相信人格是一切之首。他們從不問：“人們會怎麼想?”而是問：“如果你做這件事而不做那件，你會怎麼想?”因此，按自己的意願生活便成爲了最基本的價值觀，而“人們會怎麼想?”這個問題則退居二線。

A second basic value, in some ways an extension of the first, I owe to an old college professor, who had suffered more than his share of grief and trouble. Over and over he said to us, “The one thing that really matters is to be bigger than the things that can happen to you. Nothing that can happen to you is half so important that the way in which you end it.”

Gradually I realized that here was the basis of the only really security and peace of mind that a human being can have. Nobody can be sure when disaster, disappointment, injustice, or humiliation, may come to him through no fault of his own. Nor can one be guaranteed against one’s own mistakes and failures. But the way we meet life is ours to choose. And when integrity, fortitude, dignity, and compassion are our choice, the things that can happen to us lose their power over us.

從某種程度上來說，第二條基礎價值觀就是對第一條的延伸，這是我從一位大學老教授那裏瞭解到的。他所遭受的不幸與痛苦比常人要多得多。他不止一次地告訴我們：“你要比發生在你身上的苦難更爲強大;面對不幸的態度比你所遭受的不幸更爲重要。這一點很重要。”

慢慢地，我瞭解到，這正是人類擁有真正安全感與平和心態的基礎。即使自己並無任何過錯，也沒有人確切地知道，災難、失望、不公或羞辱何時會降臨到自己的頭上，而且也沒人敢保證自己不會犯錯、不會失敗。但是，我們可以選擇面對生活的方式。當我們選擇正直、堅韌、尊嚴與同情時，任何不幸的威脅都無法影響到我們。

The acceptance of these two basic values led to a third. If what one is and how one meets life are of first importance, one is not impressed by another's money, status, or power, nor does one judge people by their race, color, or social position. This opens up a whole new world of relationships, for when friendships are based on qualities of mind and character, one can have friends among old and young, rich and poor, famous and unknown, educated and unlettered, and among people of all races and all nations.

Given these three basic values, a fourth became inevitable. It is one's duty and obligation to help create a social order in which persons are more important than things, ideas more precious than gadgets, and in which individuals are judged on the basis of personal worth. Moreover, for this judgment to be fair, human beings must have an opportunity for the fullest development of which they are capable. One is thus led to work for a world of freedom and justice through those social agencies and institutions which make it possible for people everywhere to realize their highest potentialities.

當你接受了前兩條基本的價值觀，也就能夠接受這第三條。如果一個人堅持自我以及自己的生活方式，那他就不會爲他人的金錢、地位與權利所動，也不會以人們的種族、膚色或社會地位來評價他們。全新的人際關係世界就此開啓了。因爲，當友誼基於思想與人品時，老人與青年、富人與窮人、名人與普通人、受過良好教育的人、目不識丁者，以及不同種族、不同民族的人們都能夠成爲你的朋友。

有了上面三條基本的價值觀，第四條自然就無法避免。它是一個人協助創造社會秩序的責任與義務。在這個社會秩序中，人比物重要，思想比精巧的器具重要，個人的價值是以人的基本原則爲基礎的。此外，爲保證這個評判的公正，人類必須有機會全面發展自身的能力。於是，社會組織與機構便致力於使世界各地的人們認識到他們最大的潛能，並引導人們爲創造一個自由公平的世界而工作。

Perhaps all this adds up to a belief in what has been called the human use of human beings. We are set off from the rest of the animal world by our capacity consciously to transcend our physical needs and desires. Men must concern themselves with food and with other physical needs, and they must protect themselves and their own from bodily harm, but these activities are not exclusively human. Many animals concern themselves with these things. When we worship, pray, or feel compassion, when we enjoy a painting, a sunset or a sonata, when we think and reason, pursue ideas, seek truth, or read a book, when we protect the weak and helpless, when we honor the noble and cherish the good, when we cooperate with our fellow men to build a better world, our behavior is worthy of our status as human beings

也許，所有這一切加起來就形成了一種信仰，那就是人類如何實現自我價值。我們人類之所以優於動物，是因爲人擁有自覺控制自身需求與慾望的能力。人類必須考慮食物與自身的需求，必須保護自身與親人不受傷害，但是這些行爲並不只限於人類。很多動物都擁有這方面的本能。當我們膜拜、祈禱或感動時;當我們欣賞畫作、夕陽或奏鳴曲時;當我們思考推理、追隨靈感、尋求真相或閱讀一本書時;當我們保護弱者與無助的人時;當我們尊敬高尚的人、心懷行善的願望時;當我們爲建設更美好的世界與他人合作時;我們的行爲才使我們無愧於“人類”這個稱呼。