【作者简介】伯特兰·罗素（Bertrand Russell，1872—1970）是二十世纪英国哲学家、数理逻辑学家、历史学家，无神论或者不可知论者，也是上世纪西方最著名、影响最大的学者和和平主义社会活动家之一，罗素也被认为是与弗雷格、维特根斯坦和怀特海一同创建了分析哲学。
Three passions, simply but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
有三种质朴而又十分强烈的激情一直支配着我的人生，这就是对爱的渴望、对知识的求索和对人类苦难的无限怜悯。这三种激情，有如狂飙挟我四海漂泊，游移不定，直至苦海的深渊，濒临绝望的边缘。
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy -- ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness -- that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miminiature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what -- at last --I have found.
我寻求爱，首先在于爱能带来狂喜——它是如此令人心醉神迷，我愿舍弃余生来换取片刻的欢乐；我寻求爱，还因为爱消除孤独——那种当一个颤抖的灵魂从世界的边缘透视那冰冷、荒凉的无尽深渊时感到的那种孤独；此外，我所以寻求爱，还因为在爱的交融中，我看见了圣者和诗人所预想的天堂景象的神秘缩影，这正是我心中之所求，虽然人生似乎难臻此境，我最终却不负所求。
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
我怀着同样的激情来探索知识。我希望能够理解众人之心，我渴望了解星星缘何闪光，我也曾努力领会毕达哥拉斯赋予数的力量——主宰万物流变之力。我虽未创斐然之绩，却也还算小有所成。
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
爱和知识竭力引导着我超凡入圣，但怜悯又把我拉回了凡尘。声声悲号在我心中回响不绝。饥饿的孩子、惨遭压迫的苦难者、因依附儿子而被视为可憎重负的无助老人以及整个孤独、贫闲好痛苦的世界是对人们理想人生的嘲讽。我渴望减轻罪恶，却又无能为力，我也同样感到痛苦。
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
这就是我的人生。我觉得自己并未虚度此生，若有可能，我将欣然再一次度过如此人生。
