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。
翻译：
真正的高贵
海明威
风平浪静之时，人人可为舵手。
然而，只见阳光不见阴霾，只见欢乐不见痛苦，根本称不上人生。以最幸福的人为例，他们的生活也像一团纠结的纱线。丧失与恩赐，接踵而至，使我们时而伤悲，时而高兴。甚至死亡本身也使人对生命更加眷恋。因哀痛和失落的笼罩，人生变得清醒，此时人们才与真实的自我最为接近。
在生活或职业的各种事务中，才智的作用不及性情，头脑不如内心，天资不如有判断力制约的克制、忍耐和自律。
我始终相信，内心开始愈加严谨的人，也会在外在开始更趋质朴。在这个奢华浪费的年代，我希望能向世人表明，人类真正需求之物，少之又少。
错而能改，不蹈覆辙，才是真正的悔悟。优于他人，并非高贵。真正的高贵应该是优于自己的过去。
