《沉思录·卷十一·灵魂的属性》第34条
When a man kisses his child, said Epictetus, he should whisper to himself, "To-morrow perchance thou wilt die."--But those are words of bad omen.--"No word is a word of bad omen," said Epictetus, "which expresses any work of nature; or if it is so, it is also a word of bad omen to speak of the ears of corn being reaped" (Epictetus, iii. 24, 88).
注释摘要
爱比克泰德这句话的力度，在于它用一个极私密的场景，捅破了一层我们平时不敢捅破的窗户纸。亲吻自己的孩子，是人间最深情的举动之一，而他偏偏要在这种时刻，低声对自己说：“明天，你也许就会死。”这话听起来冷酷，甚至像一句恶毒的诅咒，所以旁人立刻反应说，这是凶兆之言。爱比克泰德的回应却没有任何退让，他直接把“凶兆”这个词给拆解了。他的逻辑很简单：如果一句话只是在陈述…