【每日斯多葛】7月27日

July 27th

WHERE IS ANYTHING BETTER?

“Indeed, if you find anything in human life better than justice, truth, self-control, courage—in short, anything better than the sufficiency of your own mind, which keeps you acting according to the demands of true reason and accepting what fate gives you outside of your own power of choice—I tell you, if you can see anything better than this, turn to it heart and soul and take full advantage of this greater good you’ve found.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 3.6.1

We’ve all chased things we thought would matter. At some point, we all thought that money would be the answer, that success was the highest prize, that the undying love of a beautiful person would finally make us feel warm inside. What do we find when we actually attain these sacred objects? Not that they are empty or meaningless—only those who have never had them think that—but what we find is that they are not enough.

Money creates problems. Climbing one mountain exposes another, higher peak. There is never enough love.

There is something better out there: real virtue. It is its own reward. Virtue is the one good that reveals itself to be more than we expect and something that one cannot have in degrees. We simply have it or we don’t. And that is why virtue—made up as it is of justice, honesty, discipline, and courage—is the only thing worth striving for.

7月27日

还有什么比这更好？

“的确，如果你在人类生活中发现了任何比正义、真理、自制和勇气更好的东西——简而言之，任何比你自己的心智自足更好的东西；这种心智使你按照真正理性的要求行事，并接受命运赐予你的、超出你自身选择能力之外的一切——那么我告诉你，如果你能看到任何比这更好的东西，就全心全意地转向它，充分利用你所发现的这一更大的善。”

——马可·奥勒留，《沉思录》，3.6.1

我们都曾追逐过那些自以为重要的东西。在某个阶段，我们都曾以为金钱就是答案，成功就是最高的奖赏，一个美丽之人永恒不变的爱最终会让我们的内心感到温暖。当我们真正得到这些被奉为神圣的东西时，会发现什么呢？并不是发现它们空洞或毫无意义——只有从未拥有过它们的人才会这样想——我们发现的只是：它们还不够。

金钱会带来问题。登上一座山之后，又会看到另一座更高的山峰。爱似乎也永远不够。

还有一种更好的东西：真正的美德。它本身就是回报。美德是唯一一种会显现出比我们预期的更多价值的善，也是一种不存在程度之分的东西。我们要么拥有它，要么没有。正因为如此，由正义、诚实、自律和勇气构成的美德，才是唯一值得我们为之奋斗的东西。