Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the neighborhood would have been Thoreau’s idea of the low levels. The active discipline of heightening one’s perception of what is enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high. What he saved from the low was time and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau certainly disapproved of starvation, but he would put into feeding himself only as much effort as would keep him functioning for more important efforts.
pleasure of taking pains”. The mortal flaw in the advertised version of happiness
We demand difficulty even in our games. We demand it because without
When someone ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the rules. It is easier to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to change the wholly arbitrary rules, but the fun is in winning within the rules. No difficulty, no fun.
努力是精华所在。
如果不去对付充实人生的困难，人们就不会感到快乐。
正如叶芝所言，只要不是试图做不可能之事，我们一生中选择的事愈难，则愈感到满足。
罗伯特·福罗斯特曾说“享受操劳的快乐”，心中所想也与此也大致相同。
而现在宣传的幸福观，最大缺陷就在于认为幸福就是要唾手可得。
即使在游戏中，我们也要求有难度。
因为没有难度，游戏就不成其为游戏了。
游戏是要设法让事情变得困难以求乐趣。
游戏规则就是强加困难。
如果有人毁了这乐趣，通常是因为他拒绝遵守游戏规则。
若能随意改变完全强加的规则，当然很容易赢。
但是乐趣来源于遵守规则而获胜。
没有困难就没有快乐。
B
来美国求学的中国学生与其他亚裔学生一样，大多非常刻苦勤奋，周末也往往会抽出一
天甚至两天的时间去实验室加班，因而比起美国学生来，
嗜酒好烟，脾气暴躁。
但他十分欣赏亚裔学生勤奋与扎实的基础知识，也特别了解亚裔学生的思想与心理。
因此，在他实验室所招的学生中，除有一名来自德国外，其余5位均是亚裔学生。
他干脆在实验室的门上贴一醒目招牌：“本室助研必须每周工作7天，早10时至晚12时，工作时间必须全力以赴。
”这位导师的严格及苛刻是全校有名的，在我所呆的3年半中，共有14位学生被招进他的实验室，最后博士毕业的只剩下5人。
My supervisor, who was of Asian descent, drank and smoked a lot and was quite hot-tempered. But he highly appreciated Asian students for their diligence and solid foundation in science, and knew well what they thought and how they felt as well. Therefore, of/ among the six students enrolled in his lab, five were from Asia besides one from Germany. He even stuck on the door of his lab an eye-catching signboard which read: “The assistant researcher in this lab will have to work seven days every week, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and must be devoted during
working time.”This teacher was well known in the university for his strictness and severity. During the three and a half years when I was there, 14 students had been enrolled in his lab in all. But only five graduated as doctors.。