美的格言

東年選譯 

Helen Keller:

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in the heart.

世上最好最美的事物是看不見的，摸不到的...只有心性、感情和勇氣可以察覺。 

Henry Miller:

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

一個人一旦密切注意起任何事物，即使只是一片草葉，也會變成一種神祕的、無比的遼闊和壯麗，令人敬畏。 

Albert Camus：

Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.

美，是永恆不朽的瞬間一現，可是我們竟然會想追求它一生；美的慾求，驅使人絕望，令人難以忍受。 

Albert Einstein：

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious － the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

以天生的感情喜愛純粹藝術和科學，所感受到的神秘，是我們能夠擁有的最美的經驗。 

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

每個人都是宇宙的一部份，為時空所限的角色；如果他僅體驗自己，自以為思想、感情和他人不同，那會是他意識裡的視覺迷惑。這樣的自以為是，會把我們在個人的慾望中監禁，得不到太多友誼。我們必須寬大胸懷，充滿同情，在純樸的美中去擁抱整體的自然和任何生命；如此解放自己。 

Anais Nin:

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

擁有知識並不會扼殺我們的好奇心和神秘感，神秘總是與時俱增。