A COLLECTION OF GOOD WORDS
文明
Civilization
Civilization is hideously fragile and there's not much between us and the horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish.
文明是极其脆弱的，在我们和我们内心的恐惧之间没有太多东西，只有一层清漆。
Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
个人对集体努力的承诺——这就是团队工作、公司工作、社会工作、文明工作的原因。
Against the dark background of this contemporary civilization of well-being, even the arts tend to mingle, to lose their identity.
在当代文明幸福的黑暗背景下，即使是艺术也趋向于交融，失去了自己的身份。
In our civilization, men are afraid that they will not be men enough and women are afraid that they might be considered only women.
在我们的文明中，男人害怕自己不够男人，女人害怕自己可能被认为只是女人。
I believe with all my heart that civilization has produced nothing finer than a man or woman who thinks and practices true tolerance.
我全心全意地相信，文明没有创造出比一个思考和实践真正宽容的男人或女人更好的人。
Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.
人类不可能拯救文明，除非他能进化出一个与天堂和地狱无关的善恶体系。
If a test of civilization be sought, none can be so sure as the condition of that half of society over which the other half has power.
如果要对文明进行检验，没有人能像社会的那一半人的状况那样确定，而社会的那一半人又掌握着权力。
By vulgarity I mean that vice of civilization which makes man ashamed of himself and his next of kin, and pretend to be somebody else.
我所说的粗俗，是指文明的罪恶，它使人为自己和近亲感到羞耻，并假扮成另一个人。
We believe that civilization has been created under the pressure of the exigencies of life at the cost of satisfaction of the instincts.
我们认为，文明是在生活的迫切需要的压力下，以满足本能为代价而创造的。
History shows us that other highly developed forms of civilization have collapsed. Who knows whether the same fate does not await our own?
历史告诉我们，其他高度发达的文明形式已经崩溃。谁知道同样的命运是否正等着我们呢?
And we owe science to the combined energies of individual men of genius, rather than to any tendency to progress inherent in civilization.
我们把科学归功于天才个人的综合能力，而不是文明固有的任何进步趋势。
All over the world the wildlife that I write about is in grave danger. It is being exterminated by what we call the progress of civilization.
在世界各地，我所写的野生动物都处于严重的危险之中。它正在被我们所谓的文明进步所消灭。
KEEP EXPLORING
沿着这个主题，再读几句。
In the cold, shivering twilight, preceding the daybreak of civilization, the dominating emotion of man was fear.
在文明破晓前寒冷颤抖的暮色中，人类最主要的情感是恐惧。
A race preserves its vigour so long as it harbours a real contrast between what has been and what may be, and so long as it is nerved by the vigour to adventure beyond the safeties of the past. Without adventure, civilization is in full decay.
一个民族，只要它在过去和将来之间存在着一种真正的对比，只要它有勇气去冒险，超越过去的安全，它就能保持活力。没有冒险，文明就会完全衰落。
But the further step, by means of which a civilization is given its quality or culture, is only attained by a process of cellular division, in the course of which the individual is differentiated, made distinct from and independent of the parent group.
但是，只有通过细胞分裂的过程，才能使个体得到区别，使个体区别于母体，并独立于母体，从而获得文明的品质或文化。
No doubt Western civilization has in the past been full of wars and revolutions, and the national elements in our culture, even when they were ignored, always provided an unconscious driving force of passion and aggressive self-assertion.
毫无疑问，西方文明在过去充满了战争和革命，而我们文化中的民族元素，即使被忽视，也总是提供了一种无意识的动力，激情和侵略性的自我主张。