《沉思录·卷八·行事与本分》第50条
A cucumber is bitter--Throw it away.--There are briers in the road--Turn aside from them.--This is enough. Do not add, And why were such things made in the world? For thou wilt be ridiculed by a man who is acquainted with nature, as thou wouldst be ridiculed by a carpenter and shoemaker if thou didst find fault because thou seest in their workshop shavings and cuttings from the things which they make. And yet they have places into which they can throw these shavings and cuttings, and the universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything within her which appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter, and her own art.
注释摘要
奥勒留在这里用的是一套很朴素、但下手极狠的生活逻辑。面对苦黄瓜，正常的做法不是站在原地追问宇宙的正义，而是把它扔掉；面对路中央的荆棘，绕开就是了。他立刻制止你进一步去问：那为什么世界上会有苦黄瓜和荆棘这种东西？这种追问在他看来既无益又可笑，因为它把一种实践的回避变成了理论的抱怨，而抱怨就预设了一个可以挑剔自然的立场。 这里隐含的是斯多葛派的一个核心分际：有…