The True Nobility

By Ernest Hemingway

In a calm sea every man is a pilot.

But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest — it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorry and loss.
In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.
I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.
To regret one’s errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self。

翻譯：

真正的高貴   

 海明威

風(fēng)平浪靜之時(shí)，人人可為舵手。

然而，只見陽光不見陰霾，只見歡樂不見痛苦，根本稱不上人生。以最幸福的人為例，他們的生活也像一團(tuán)糾結(jié)的紗線。喪失與恩賜，接踵而至，使我們時(shí)而傷悲，時(shí)而高興。甚至死亡本身也使人對(duì)生命更加眷戀。因哀痛和失落的籠罩，人生變得清醒，此時(shí)人們才與真實(shí)的自我最為接近。

在生活或職業(yè)的各種事務(wù)中，才智的作用不及性情，頭腦不如內(nèi)心，天資不如有判斷力制約的克制、忍耐和自律。

我始終相信，內(nèi)心開始愈加嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)娜耍矔?huì)在外在開始更趨質(zhì)樸。在這個(gè)奢華浪費(fèi)的年代，我希望能向世人表明，人類真正需求之物，少之又少。

錯(cuò)而能改，不蹈覆轍，才是真正的悔悟。優(yōu)于他人，并非高貴。真正的高貴應(yīng)該是優(yōu)于自己的過去。