On Resignation

论放弃

Resignation is of two sorts, one rooted in despair, the other in unconquerable hope. The man who has suffered such fundamental defeat that he has given up hope of serious achievement may learn the resignation of despair, and if he does, he will abandon all serious activity. He may, camouflage¹ his despair by religious phrases, or by the doctrine² that contemplation is the true end of man, but whatever disguise he may adopt to conceal³ his inward defeat, he will remain essentially⁴ useless and fundamentally unhappy. The man whose resignation is based on unconquerable hope acts in quite a different way. Hope which is to be unconquerable must be large and impersonal⁵. Whatever my personal activities, may be defeated by death, or by certain kinds of diseases; I may be overcome by my enemies; I may find that I have embarked⁶ upon an unwise course which cannot lead to success. In a thousand ways the failure of purely⁷ personal hopes may be unavoidable, but if personal aims have been part of larger hopes for humanity, there is not the same utter defeat when failure comes.

放弃有两种，一种源于绝望，一种源于不可征服的希望。前者是不好的，后者是好的。一个人遭到重创，以致对重大的成就不抱希望时，也许会走向绝望的放弃，采真如此，他将中止一切重要的活动;他也许会用宗教上的词句，或者用沉思默想，才是人类的真正的目标的说教来掩饰他的绝望。但是无论他使用何种托辞来遮掩他内心的失败，他本质上将是一个无用的和不快乐的人。把放弃建立在不可征服的希望之上的人，行动则截然不同。不可征服的希望必定是很大的而且是非个人性质的。无论我个人的活动如何，我都可能被死亡或某种疾病击败;我可能被敌人打倒;我可能发现自己走上了一条不能成功的蠢路。 在成千上万的形式中，纯属个人希望的破灭也许不可避免，但若个人的目标已成为人类的大希望中的一部分，那么当失败到来时，就不至于被彻底击倒了。