双语智慧书·文明和高雅

87．文明和高雅
　　文明和高雅。人类生来野蛮，文化使人类高于动物。因此，是文化造就了人；人越文明，便越伟大。正因如此，古希腊人将世界上的其他人称为野蛮之人。无知就是未开化--最能教化人类的莫如知识。但是，若不高雅，即便有知识，也显得粗鄙。我们的才智，我们的欲求，特别是言谈，都要显得高雅才行。有些人天生就秀外慧中，他们的思想、言谈、衣着（如同灵魂的果皮）和才干（如同灵魂的果实）都显得高雅；相反，有的人粗俗不堪，极度缺乏教养，令人无法忍受，这使得他们的一切（甚至包括最优秀的品质）都失去了光芒。


87．Culture and elegance
　Culture and elegance. Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture. Culture therefore makes the man; the more a man, the higher. Thanks to it, Greece could call the rest of the world barbarians. Ignorance is very raw; nothing contributes so much to culture as knowledge. But even knowledge is coarse If without elegance. Not alone must our intelligence be elegant, but our desires, and above all our conversation. Some men are naturally elegant in internal and external qualities, in their thoughts, in their words, in their dress, which is the rind of the soul, and in their talents, which is its fruit. There are others, on the other hand, so gauche that everything about them, even their very excellences, is tarnished by an intolerable and barbaric want of neatness.