On Pleasure
论快乐

伊壁鸠鲁（公元前342-前270年）是古希腊著名哲学家，创立了伊壁鸠鲁学派。在古希腊文明晚期，城邦民主政治瓦解，社会趋于混乱，个人无所适从。伊壁鸠鲁于是教导人们，幸福即安宁，保持身体健康与心平气和即可进入快乐境界。他认为，快乐乃至高的善，趋乐避苦是人的本性，但重要的是快乐的持久度而不是强度，是心灵无忧虑，身体无痛苦，而不是感官的不断刺激。快乐的生活人人可以享受，为此人们必须清除不必要的欲望，远离政治，多交朋友。同时，他强调只有通过研究哲学，探求知识，人们才能认识快乐的本源。必须指出，伊壁鸠鲁的快乐哲学具有明显的消极、禁欲色彩，但有助于我们认识古希腊文明晚期的价值转向。伊氏主要著作有《论自然》、《准则学》、《论目的》等，本文选自他的书信集。

　　Since pleasure is the first good and natural to us, for this very reason we do not choose every pleasure, but sometimes we pass over many pleasures, when greater discomfort accrues to us as the result of them: and similarly we think many pains better than pleasures, since a greater pleasure comes to us when we have endured pains for a long time. Every pleasure then because of its natural kinship to us is good, yet not every pleasure is to be chosen; even as every pain also is an evil, yet not all are always of a nature to be avoided. Yet by a scale of comparison and by the consideration of advantages and disadvantages we must form our judgment on all these matters. For the good on certain occasions we treat as bad, and conversely the bad as good.
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　　We must consider that of desires some are natural, others vain, and of the natural some are necessary and others merely natural; and of the necessary some are necessary for happiness, others for the repose of the body, and others for very life....

　　Unhappiness comes either through fear or through vain and unbridled desire; but if a man curbs these, he can win for himself the blessedness of understanding.... Of desires, all that do not lead to a sense of pain, if they are not satisfied, are not necessary, but involve a craving which is easily dispelled, when the object is hard to procure or they seem likely to produce harm. . . . Wherever in the case of desires which are natural, but do not lead to a sense of pain, if they are not fulfilled, the effort is intense, such pleasures are due to idle imagination, and it is not owing to their own nature that they fail to be dispelled, but owing to the empty imaginings of the man....

　　The disturbance of the soul cannot be ended nor true joy created either by the possession of the greatest wealth or by honor and respect in the eyes of the mob or by anything else that is associated with causes of unlimited desires.... We must not violate nature, but obey her; and we shall obey her if we fulfill the necessary desires and also the natural, if they bring no harm to us, but sternly reject the harmful.... The man who follows nature and not vain opinions is independent in all things. For in reference to what is enough for nature every possession is riches, but in reference to unlimited desires even the greatest wealth is not riches but poverty.