A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
斯多葛派将恐懼轉化爲謹慎，将痛苦轉化爲變革，将錯誤轉化爲啓蒙，将渴望轉化爲事業。
Corollary to Moore’s Law: every ten years, collective wisdom degrades by half.
摩爾定律的補充：人類的群體智慧每10年會降低一半。
You want to be yourself, idiosyncratic; the collective (school, rules, jobs,technology) wants you generic to the point of castration.
你想做你自己，表現出獨特性；群體（學校、規矩、工作、科技）則想讓你做大衆的一分子，完全沒有自己的特點，哪怕得爲此把你閹掉。
Economics cannot digest the idea that the collective (and the aggregate) are disproportionately less predictable than individuals.
經濟學弄不清楚的是群體（或者說集體）行爲遠比個體行爲難以預料。
It takes extraordinary wisdom and self-control to accept that many things have alogic we do not understand that is smarter than our own.
我們需要傑出的智慧和自控力才能承認，許多事情的邏輯是我們不了解的，并且比我們自己的邏輯更明智。
It is a very recent disease to mistake the unobserved for the nonexistent.
把觀察不到的東西當作不存在，這是近來開始流行的一種疾病。
For the robust, an error is information; for the fragile, an error is an error.
對于堅強的人，錯誤提供了信息；對于脆弱的人，錯誤就是錯誤。
The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds.
知識的問題在于，由觀鳥者撰寫的關于鳥類的書籍，遠比由鳥類撰寫的關于鳥類的書籍和由鳥類撰寫的關于觀鳥者的書籍多得多。
They think that intelligence is about noticing things that are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns).
他們認爲智力就是注意到有關系的事情（感知事物的模式）；在複雜的世界裏，智力就是忽略無關的事情（躲避虛假的模式）。
The calamity of the information age is that the toxicity of data increases much faster than its benefits.
信息時代的災難在于，信息的害處遠比它的益處增長得快。
Most info-web-media-newspaper types have a hard time swallowing the idea that knowledge is reached (mostly) by removing junk from people’s heads.
絕大多數沉迷于信息——網絡——媒體——報紙的人都很難接受，獲得智慧的（主要）方法是從頭腦中除去垃圾信息。
It is much less dangerous to think like a man of action than to act like a man of thought.
像一個行動主義者那樣思考，遠不如像一個思考主義者那樣行動危險。
There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.
世上有兩類人：追求勝利的人和追求在争論中勝利的人。他們從來不是同一撥人。
The book is the only medium left that hasn’t been corrupted by the profane: everything else on your eyelids manipulates you with an ad.
還沒有被凡俗沾染的媒介就隻剩下書籍了，你看到的其他媒介都試圖通過廣告來操控你。
To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.
要徹底戒掉報紙，隻需要連續一年每天閱讀上個星期的報紙。
Every social association that is not face to face is injurious to your health.
任何不是面對面進行的社交活動都會損害健康。
Fortune punishes the greedy by making him poor and the very greedy by making him rich.
命運懲罰貪婪者的方式是讓他貧窮，懲罰特别貪婪者的方式是讓他富有。
The only definition of an alpha male: if you try to be an alpha male, you will never be one.
主導者的唯一定義是：如果你努力試圖成爲主導者，那你永遠也成不了主導者。
Mediocre men tend to be outraged by small insults but passive, subdued and silent in front of very large ones.
普通人往往會被小的冒犯激怒，卻在大的冒犯面前保持沉默，無動于衷。
Happiness; we don’t know what it means, how to measure it and how to reach it; but we know extremely well how to avoid unhappiness.
幸福：我們不知道它是什麽意思，怎樣衡量它，怎樣實現它，但我們非常清楚如何躲避“不幸福”。
Just as dyed hair makes older men less attractive, it is what you do to hide your weaknesses that makes them repugnant.
就像染頭發讓老男人看起來更缺乏魅力一樣，你越是掩飾自己的弱點，就越會欲蓋彌彰。
Finer men tolerate others’ small inconsistencies though not the large ones; the weak tolerate others’ large inconsistencies though not small ones.
聰明人能容忍别人的小缺陷，但不能容忍别人嚴重的自相矛盾；弱者能容忍别人嚴重的自相矛盾，但不能容忍别人的小缺陷。
Men destroy each other during war; themselves during peacetime.
人們在戰争中彼此摧毀，在和平時自己摧毀自己。
When conflicted between two choices, take neither.
如果在兩種選擇之間搖擺不定，那就兩種都别選。
Charm is the ability to insult people without offending them.
魅力就是侮辱别人又不讓他們生氣的能力。
People usually apologize so they can do it again.
人們道歉經常是爲了将來再道同樣的歉。
Religions and ethics have evolved from promising heaven if you do good, to promising heaven while you do good, to making you promise to do good.
人們往往需要暫停自我推銷，在生活中找一個自己不必給他留下深刻印象的人，這就解釋了爲什麽許多人養狗。
We find it to be in extremely bad taste for individuals to boast of their accomplishments; but when countries do so we call it “national pride.”
如果某個人吹噓自己的成就，會讓我們感到惡心，但如果國家吹噓自己的成就，則被稱爲“民族自豪感”。
You need to keep reminding yourself of the obvious: charm lies in the unsaid, the unwritten and the undisplayed. It takes mastery to control silence.
你得随時提醒自己，魅力存在于沒有說出來、沒有寫下來、沒有展示出來的東西中。把握沉默需要境界。
The characteristic feature of the loser is to be moan, in general terms, mankind’s flaws, biases, contradictions, and irrationality——without exploiting them for fun and profit.
失敗者的特點是會抱怨人類的缺陷、偏見、自相矛盾和缺乏理智，但又不利用這些東西追求自己的歡樂和利益。
When she shouts that what you did was unforgivable, she has already started to forgive you.
當她嚷嚷着無法原諒你做的事情的時候，她已經開始原諒你了。
If you find any reason why you and someone are friends, you are not friends.
要是你需要理由來解釋爲什麽你跟某人是朋友，那你們就不算是朋友。
Never rid anyone of an illusion unless you can replace it in his mind with another illusion.
不要消除别人的幻覺，除非你能用另一個幻覺替代它。
We unwittingly amplify commonalities with friends, dissimilarities with strangers and contrasts with enemies.
我們會不自覺地放大自己與朋友的相同之處，與陌生人的不同之處，與敵人的相反之處。
Over the long term, you are more likely to fool yourself than others.
長期來看，你更容易愚弄自己而不是别人。
For everything, use boredom in place of a clock, as a biological wristwatch, though under constraints of politeness.
做任何事情的時候，把無聊程度當作鍾表，提醒自己做得夠久了。
They will envy you for your success, for your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status —— but rarely for your wisdom.
人们会羡慕你的成功、你的财富、你的聪明、你的相貌、你的地位——但是很少有人会羡慕你的智慧。
Most people fear being without audiovisual stimulation because they are too repetitive when they think and imagine things on their own.
绝大多数人害怕失去视听刺激，因为当他们自己思考和想象时，总是在重复同样的内容。
You have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits.
隻有當你在任何領域都不跟任何人攀比時，你才算擁有真正的生活。
The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates and a monthly salary.
讓人上瘾的東西裏，害處最大的三種是海洛因、碳水化合物和月薪。
The classical man’s worst fear was inglorious death; the modern man’s worst fear is just death.
古人最怕的是不光榮的死亡，現代人最怕的就是死亡。
What fools call “wasting time” is most often the best investment.
傻瓜們所謂的“浪費時間”往往是最好的投資。
The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss.
羅馬時代的奴隸與今天的雇員之間唯一的不同，就是奴隸用不着奉承主人。
Preoccupation with efficacy is the main obstacle to a poetic, noble, elegant, robust and heroic life.
對效率的追求是阻止我們過上充滿詩意的、高貴的、優雅的、富有活力的、英雄主義的生活的主要原因。
If you know, in the morning, what your day looks like with any precision, you are a little bit dead——the more precision, the more dead you are.
要是你早晨起床時，就能預測這一天會是什麽樣子，那你已經開始靠近死亡了——預測得越準确，你離死亡就越近。
You exist if and only if you are free to do things without a visible objective, with no justification and, above all, outside the dictatorship of someone else’s narrative.
隻有當你可以自由地做任何事情，不需要明顯的目的、理由和别人的要求時，你才算真正存在于這世上。
There is no intermediate state between ice and water but there is one between life and death: employment.
冰與水之間并沒有中間狀态，但是生與死之間确實有中間狀态：雇傭狀态。
Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur.
現代化就是創造出沒有英雄主義的年輕人，沒有智慧的老人以及沒有光彩的生活。
Your brain is most intelligent when you don’t instruct it on what to do something people who take showers discover on occasion.
你腦子最聰明的時候，是你不告訴它該做什麽的時候——人們偶爾會在洗澡時發現這一點。
Technology can degrade (and endanger) every aspect of a sucker’s life while convincing him that it is becoming more “efficient”.
科技可以讓愚人的生活在所有方面發生退化（甚至陷入危機），同時又讓他相信自己的生活正在變得“更有效率”。
The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.
科技和奴役的區别在于，奴隸很清楚自己并不自由。
Don’t talk about “progress” in terms of longevity, safety, or comfort before comparing zoo animals to those in the wilderness.
不要用長壽、安全和舒适度的提高來衡量社會的進步，動物園裏的動物較野生動物而言也是這樣的。
Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone.
冥想是一種不用傷害别人的自戀方式。
True humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others; the rest is either shyness or good marketing.
真正的謙卑意味着你能讓自己比别人更吃驚；别的要麽是羞澀，要麽是巧妙的自我宣傳。
To value a person, consider the difference between how impressive he or she was at the first encounter and the most recent one.
要衡量一個人的價值，考慮一下你第一次見到他時的印象，跟最近一次見到他時的印象有多大的差别。
My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal.
我對現代化最不滿的地方，或許就是“合乎倫理”跟“合法”越來越不是同一回事。
Modernity’s double punishment is to make us both age prematurely and live longer.
現代社會給我們的雙重懲罰是，既讓我們衰老得更早，又讓我們活得更長。
You exist in full if and only if your conversation (or writings) cannot be easily reconstructed with clips from other conversations.
隻有當你的談話（或者文字）沒法很容易地用别的談話的片斷重新構建出來時，你才算是真正地存在着。
We are hunters; we are only truly alive in those moments when we improvise; no schedule, just small surprises and stimuli from the environment.
我們是獵人；我們隻有在随機應變的時候才真正活着；沒有日程安排，隻有來自周圍環境的新鮮刺激。
Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather than shame for lack of talent, finesse and mostly, sprezzatura.
隻有在近代，“努力”才變成一件讓人驕傲的事情，而不是一件因爲缺乏天賦、才能和氣度才不得不做的、可恥的事情。
What they call “play” (gym, travel, sports) looks like work; the harder they try, the more captive they are.
他們所謂的“玩”（健身、旅遊、體育）看起來更像是工作；他們越是努力，就越會深陷其中。
Success is becoming in middle adulthood what you dreamed to be in late childhood. The rest comes from loss of control.
成功就是在中年時成爲你在少年時夢想成爲的那個人，其他都是失控導緻的結果。
The opposite of success isn’t failure, it is namedropping.
成功的對立面不是失敗，而是把成功人士的名字時時挂在嘴邊炫耀。
My only measure of success is how muck time you have to kill.
我衡量成功的唯一标準，就是你有多少時間需要打發。
Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others exepct from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking.
隻有當你迫切地想趕上火車時，錯過火車才是令人遺憾的。成功也是同理，沒能成功隻有當你在迎合他人的标準時，才會讓人沮喪。
Life is about execution rather than purpose.
人生的重點在于行動，而不是糾結意義。