英国哲学家伯特兰·罗素（Bertrand Russell，1872-1970）的一段话非常经典，值得背诵：

    An individual human existence should be like a river——small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

——from How to Grow Old

知远察微译：

        一个人，作为个体的存在，应该像一条河——起初细小狭窄，局限在两岸之间；继而激情澎湃地冲过岩石，飞流直下；渐渐地，河流变宽，两岸远离，河水静静地流淌；最后，看不出有片刻的停歇，河水融入大海，失去了作为个体的存在，没有丝毫的痛楚。

拙译文言版：人之存世，当如江河。初，岸狭流急，穿巨石而越飞瀑。渐而江面趋阔，岸之既隐，其流静矣。终，无须臾之间歇而化于海。是乎，其身消弭，不知何为痛也。

  http://s16/bmiddle/543ec12bgb2683a667e0f&690
烟斗不离手的罗素（Bertrand Russell，1872-1970）