Books do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. A good book is an urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out. 此书还是有几个这样的vial & urns, 虽然110 selected articles取材范围广泛，但总体质量一般。
1.Men seek seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat in his own soul. Make you rules for life brief, yet so as to embrace the fundamentals. 罗马皇帝在《The Meditations》中指出人想清静、远离烦恼，求助偏远的别墅不是办法，要求助于自己心灵深处, 把自己的生活信条搞得简单并仅拥抱基本的东西。这位2000年前的皇帝真是把当今人类的苦恼琢磨透了，现代人为了保护自己的习惯和秉持的原则(personal standards of morality and ethics)，在自己的生存空间中画了很多红线，致使自己的活动空间被限制在狭小的夹缝中，甚至很多老年人、中年人越活越窄，变得孤僻。当我们少否定他物，降低自己对他人、环境及条件的要求，我们自己就会活得越来越宽广、自由和快乐。什么是我的fundamentals ? 活着、运动和工作。其他一切对亲人、他人、环境的要求都是多余的和不合理的unbridled desires。“I am rising for the work of man”. 哪有时间去对evildoers/wrongdoers卑劣的事情去生气和讨厌呢(irritation and aversion)？
回归自然、克己坚韧。出于财富和权利之巅的君王尚且如此，何况吾等小辈。工科出身的人相信万事皆有因果，而且这种因果规律可以用函数来展现，并可以遵循此函数获得最大的目标值。当你的权利和财富无法左右如此种类繁多的自变量时，工科人就会陷入困恼。这是他们天生的狭隘，是偏科的恶果。当我们面对错综复杂的有人参与的社会问题时，要放弃工科的逻辑了。因为自变量太多了。这时候要求助于心、求助于灵魂！这是到知天命年龄的我的感悟。
Make your rules for life brief, yet so as to embrace the fundamentals 还有另一层意思，就是要把自己的rocks 首先放在jar中，然后sands & water 才可以放入。
2.惠特曼在《The Americans Character》中对美国的热爱和美国人民的赞美情深意切、溢于言表。The Americans have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. 而美国人的诸多品质就是unrhymed poetry, it awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it. 我赞成以下他对美国人性格的描述：blind to particulars and details; nonchalance that the soul loves; candor of their physiognomy; deathless attachment to freedom; aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean; the airs they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors.这些性格成分在中国是不被推崇的。如果美国被诵为瑰丽壮美、风情万种的诗篇，中国则是博大精深、包罗万象的太极图(Tai ji Diagram)。中国人讲究隐忍、心机、其人格标准是仁义礼智信、温良恭俭让、忠孝廉耻勇。在商品经济大潮冲击下，坚持这些标准的君子之风日渐少矣，急功近利损人利己的小人之气已成蔓延之势。一个文化强大、经济强大、军事强大的民族必然要理直气壮地向世界彰显自己强大的民族性格。由于受西方教育颇深、在商海较久，我非常欣赏上述美国人的品质，但漂浮半生之后，我更感觉中国文化的魅力无边，更坚信这样的人格信条：仁义礼智信、温良恭俭让、忠孝廉耻勇。吾等余生要做不忧、不惑、不惧的君子。
3.《共产党宣言》的两篇文章无疑是本书110篇文章中最吸引我的。《The Communist Manifesto》是马克思和恩格斯为共产主义者同盟起草的纲领，它是马克思主义诞生的重要标志。于1848年2月21日在伦敦第一次以单行本问世。我第一次读它，甚为其深邃的语言、缜密的逻辑和大胆的想象所折服。跟它相比，世上所有的文字都是儿童读物。马恩敏锐地看到了资本主义吞噬一切的不可阻挡的摧枯拉巧的力量，并为人类设计了一种思想和制度与之抗衡，这就是撰写《共产党宣言》的目的。
Has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest ,than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, chivalrous enthusiasm or philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value. And in place of the numberless and feasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom- Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
过去173年的人类历史证明,商品经济在提高生产力方面一路高歌猛进，All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned. The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production. The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate。It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production. It compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. 对此，两位伟人完全预料对了。他俩甚至在这篇搅动世界的雄文中成功预言了欧盟的出现：The bourgeois keeps more and more doing away with the scattered sate of population, of the means of production, an of property. It has agglomerated production, and has concentrated property in a few hands.。。。。。。became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class interest, one frontier and one custom-tariff. 共济会(Free Masonry) 的长远战略目标就是建立大一统的世界政府或世界联邦政府。 真正的马克思主义者应该考虑的是500年后，世界出现美俄联盟时我大中华如何应对的问题。现在的中美冲突仅仅是那一场前500年后的决斗前的小冲突而已。
180年前的哲人智者所指出的资本主义的弊端不正是我们在改革开放43年所深恶痛绝、深受其害的“一切向钱看、自私自利和道德原则丧失“吗？，不就是“天价医药费、天价学费和巨大的贫富差距”的根源吗？其实，这两位哲人智者早早地就预见到资本主义/商品经济必然给人类带来这样的危害。但是，资本主义的全球扩张实际上遇到了两位伟人没有想到过的问题：文化障碍、国界障碍、宗教信仰障碍直接束缚了看似无所不能的资本在全球的任意扩张，Free trade & world literature 远没有他们想象的那样来得迅猛和广泛（他俩当时认为National differences and antagonisms between peoples are daily more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto）。至少这173年的世界历史证明了国界、文化、信仰及地理气候大大地限制了世界市场和自由贸易的全面建立，即使在互联网时代和地球村时代，这些非经济因素还在保护着各个国家主权、文化及民族习惯的独立性。为了限制未来资本无序的扩张、裂变以至于彻底异化整个人类，两位先人设计了一种崭新的制度去抗衡之。但似乎是考虑早了。但放眼500年，这种全球被资本左右的趋势是正确的。我觉得现在的“共同富裕”无疑是在继续实现马恩的愿望：遏制住这个资本主义的吞噬人类精神自由的猛兽在中国的蔓延。我认为要在中国实现此目的，我们最好的支撑力来源于中国文化。只有文化力才能抗衡资本对人类的异化。只有博大精深魅力无边的文化力才能抗衡并溶解资本主义无孔不入的经济竞争力。 地势坤，厚德载物，源于《The Book of Changes》的清华校训说穿了未来前年的人类文明的走向。
4. World of mind can be divided into 3 distinctions: pure intellect(Truth). Taste(Beautiful) and the moral senses(Duty).
原来精神世界可以分作这样的三部分。现在的中国上过大学的人应该前两项都很优秀，但是第三项都忽略了自我修养，因为教育的缺失。不知道“仁义礼智信、温良恭俭让、忠孝廉耻勇”能否成为全体国人公认的价值观。我认为这是国家真正强大、民族受人尊重的不二选择。民族文化上的价值观是primary, other approaches are all secondary to the road of being a powerful country and respected nation.
5. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. 1776年7月4日杰弗逊起草的《独立宣言》是人类社会划时代的雄文，美国250年的稳定发展源于此纲领性文件。美国以后唯一的南北内战也是对此理念的彻底落实。
1912年1月1日上午10时，孙中山在临时大总统就职典礼上宣读的誓词颇为效仿《独立宣言》，也明确规定了总统解职的条件：倾覆满洲专制政府，巩固中华民国，图谋民生幸福，此国民之公意，文实遵之，以忠于国，为众服务。至专制政府既倒，国内无变乱，民国卓立于世界，为列邦公认，斯时文当解临时大总统之职。谨以此誓于国民。
1912年2月15日,中华民国临时参议院选举袁世凯为临时大总统。1912年3月10日，袁世凯就任临时大总统，同中山先生一样，其就职誓词简短但也明确表明了“谨守宪法”及其解职条件。“凯深愿竭其能力，发扬共和之精神，涤荡专制之瑕秽，谨守宪法，依国民之愿望，达国家于安全强固之域，俾五大民族同臻乐利。凡兹志愿，率履弗渝。俟召集国会，选定第一期大总统，世凯即行解职”。
1913年10月10日，袁世凯宣誓就任中华民国第一任正式总统。袁世凯这次则没有给与这种结束3000年封建统治后的崭新的共和制度以足够的尊重。竟然不是到国会去宣誓就职，而是坐在太和殿的御座上举行就职典礼。“后清帝逊位，共和告成，以五大族之不弃，推为临时大总统。此种政体，吾国四千年前已有雏形，本无足异”。 难怪他后来当了洪宪皇帝。
在就职大总统誓词中，他大谈治国理政方略：重法制、新实业、办教育；又抛出了袁氏思想：忠信笃敬，希望依此道德标准引导新国民。在誓词中，总统甚至对新国民的奢侈倾向作出了一番警告：“近岁以来，国民生活程度日高，而富力降而愈下。国奢示俭，古人言之，余愿国民于道德中尤注意于俭德”。
在创立的时候就阐明消亡的条件，这才是科学、严谨及认真的历史性政治文件。就如同重要的商业合同中，也要规定合同失效的条件和买卖双方不履行合同义务的罚则。国人善于模糊、留有余地以达变通和左右逢源之目的，实则因不严谨而深受其害。
......that mankind are more disposed to suffer， while evils are sufferable， than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
6. 1971年才出版的罗尔斯的《正义论》是政治哲学、伦理学领域中的经典。
Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole can not override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom is made right by a great good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many .The rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.
我认为此书及其在西方的实践使得马克思所批判的资本主义完美地完成了自我改革。因此此思想对我国和谐共同富裕社会的建立有极大的启示作用，甚至可能是实现共同富裕的唯一方法。
在罗尔斯《正义论》之前，长期处于主导地位的是传统的功利主义，其核心思想是，如果能够满足社会成员的最大幸福，它的组织就是正确的和正义的，但它却无法保证社会资源和经济资源的公平分配，常常是资源总量增加了，成果和成本的分配却有失公平，最终导致社会贫富两极化。针对这一缺陷，罗尔斯以洛克、卢梭、康德等社会契约论为基础提出了足以替代功利主义的一种新的思想理论体系。罗尔斯通过系统全面的论证，将其正义理论体系浓缩为两大原则，第一是自由平等原则，第二是机会公正+差别原则。
罗尔斯始终强调把平等的自由原则放在第一位，这与资本主义国家自由至上这一普遍思想达成共识。他认为，自由的地位坚不可摧、不容侵犯，一种自由只能被另一种更自由制约，而不为任何经济因素、利益因素所牵绊。
罗尔斯没有追求绝对的人人平等，他承认社会差别的客观存在。罗尔斯指出人民分配所得到的财富和资源当然是不平等的，但这种分配必须是对“最少受惠者”最有利。差别原则试图缩小人们由于资质、家庭出身、成长背景、社会关系等偶然因素的差异所产生的结果上的巨大差异，使偶然因素造成的社会底层与中高阶层之间的不平等限制在一定限度之内，从而调整社会的不平等和经济的不平等。
在经济地位上占主导地位的资本家在政治和文化等领域也居于明显优势。这就导致自由平等形同虚设，根本无法得到真正的实现。因此，罗尔斯提出差别原则。他指出，造成社会不正义、不和谐的原因是多方面的，但是关键原因还在于经济财富和社会资源分配有失公平、个体收入明显两极化。当然，贯彻差别原则并不是要劫富济贫，而是要在实现社会上最少受惠者最大利益的基础上，确保其他个体的实际基本利益亦得以实现。罗尔斯阐述的平等分配不等同于平均分配，它这样既有利于保证所有人都有获得社会职位和社会地位的公平机会，又不会打击一部分人的劳动热情和工作积极性。其最终目的在于缓和社会内部矛盾，维护社会和谐秩序，推进社会健康和谐发展。
自由平等原则是首要原则，只有在贯彻自由原则的前提下，才能更好地贯彻差别原则。机会公平原则又优先于差别原则，这表明了正义对效率具有绝对优先性。与效率相比，公平当然优先。公平决不能只是兼顾。
7. 集权产生效率，国家资本主义在初期发展迅速。民主决策慢，影响效率， 这些是self-evident。但是民主在社会学及文化上的弊端我还从来没有考虑过。Aristocracy had made a chain of all the members of the community, from the peasant to the king; democracy breaks that chain and servers every link of it. Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart. 因此，不得不考量中国的以家族为重要核心的文化是否会拯救资本主义的纯民主。
8. 好句子。
A sage once reduced all virtues to the golden mean.
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
We should be grateful to life whenever we are unsuccessful or unlucky. Only by doing this can we find our weakness and shortcomings when we fail.
Life is a mirror. When you smile in front of it, it will also smile and so will it when you cry to it.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater.
A heart enflamed; a soul enchanted.
How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? Those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties.
The native hue of resolution is sickled with the pale cast of thought.
Sun rose and set, the moon waxed and waned.
It is sign of despair. It is heartrending. It is hardly human. It is the cry of souls in infinite distress, only just musical. And the last note is the ultimate sob of humanity.
Man is rational, woman intuitive.
When I come into touch with nature, I begin to realize that I am not the only important creature in the world. And even that there is beauty and majesty and power in the world that is beyond any human measure.
I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument.
Keep aloof, as you would from the infected of yellow fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. (不要浪费时光同小人讲道理、辩论，即使是亲人)
The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims.
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.
Working men of all countries, unite!
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Money is a good servant but a bad master.
Exemplary persons petty persons.
智者乐水， 仁者乐山。智者动，仁者静。知者乐，仁者寿。
History teaches us that every problem has a lifespan.
更多原创文章来自创新型的无佣金、无中介的二手房业主直售平台 (微信公众号：业主售房)。近百篇原创文章包括五类：欧洲二战、房产投资、英文读后感、摄影作品及中国近代史。典型文章如下：
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