In this high summer-tide, I remember with a strange feeling that there are people who of their free choice spend day and night in cities, who throng to the gabble of drawing-rooms, make festival in public eating-houses, sweat in the glare of the theatre. Theycall it life; they call it enjoyment. Why, so it is for them; they are so made. The folly is mine to wonder that they fulfil their destiny.
But with what deep and quiet thanksgiving do I remind myself that never shall I mingle with that well-millinered and tailored herd! Happily I never saw much of them. Certain occasions I recall when a supposed necessity took me into their dismal precincts; a sick buzzing in the brain, a languor as of exhausted limbs comes upon me with the memory. The relief with which I stepped out into the street again when all was over! Dear to me then was poverty, which for the moment seemed to make me a free man. Dear to me was the labour at my desk, which by comparison enabled me to respect myself.
在这个炎夏时节,我带着一种奇怪的感觉想起了一些人:他们自愿在城市中度过每一天;他们在客厅里高谈阔论,在公共餐厅中欢享盛宴,在剧院的炫目灯光下汗流泱背;他们将这称为生活,将这视为享受。哦,对于他们来说，生活确实如此;他们也生来就是这样生活的。只有像我这般愚笨的人，才会对他们满足于自己这样的命运感到诧异。
我怀着对上苍深切而平和的感恩之心,提醒自己永远不要与那群衣冠楚楚之人同流合污!幸运的是,我并没有见过很多这样的人。我记得有几次,出于某种无可回避的原因,我到过他们那阴郁的活动场所;伴随记忆而来的,是令人不舒服的头脑混沌、四肢瘫软、筋疲力尽的感觉。当一切结束,我又重新走回大街上时,痛苦顿时烟消云散!对我来说,那时的贫穷无比珍贵,给予了我成为一个自由之人的权利;那种伏案劳作也无比珍贵,相比之下，它更能给予我以尊严。
Never again shall I shake hands with man or woman who is not in truth my friend. Never again shall I go to see acquaintances with whom I have no acquaintance. All men my brothers? Nay, thank heaven, that they are not! I will do harm if I can help it to no one; I will wish good to all; but I will make no pretence of personal kindliness where, in the nature of things, it cannot be felt. I have grimaced a smile and pattered unmeaning words to many a person whom I despised or from whom in heart I shrank; I did so because I had not courage to do otherwise. For a man conscious of such weakness, the best is to live apart from the world. Brave Samuel Johnson! One such truth-teller is worth all the moralists and preachers who ever laboured to humanize mankind. Had he withdrawn into solitude, it would have been a national loss. Everyone of his blunt, fearless words had more value than a whole evangel on the lips of a timidly good man. It is thus that the commonalty, however well clad, should be treated. So seldom does the fool or the ruffian in broadcloth hear his just designation; so seldom is the man found who has a right to address him by it. By the bandying of insults we profit nothing; there can be no useful rebuke which is exposed to a tu quoque. But, as the world is, an honest and wise man should have a rough tongue. Let him speak and spare not!
我再也不会与那些并非我真正朋友的人握手了，我也再不会去拜访那些我并不了解的相识之人。所有人都是我的兄弟吗?不,感谢上苍,他们不是!如果可以的话,我不会去伤害任何人,我愿意祝福所有人;但对于那些肯定无法感受到仁慈的人,我也不会去假装仁慈。在自己鄙视或畏惧的人面前,我也曾强颜欢笑、信口开河。我之所以这样做,是因为我缺乏以另外的方式对待他们的勇气。如果一个人意识到自己有这样的弱点,最好的解决办法就是远离这个社会,独自生活。勇敢的塞缪尔・约翰逊!一个像他这样讲真话的人,抵得上所有辛苦教化人类的道德家和传教士;如果他离群索居,那将是国家的损失。他的每一句率直、无畏的言论,要比一个软弱的老好人口中的全部福音更有价值。平民百姓即使衣着光鲜,也还是平民百姓。傻瓜或流氓即使穿着呢料外衣,也无法听到人们以敬语相称;而仅根据外表来称呼他人的人,也很难找到几个。对我们来说,互相侮辱毫无益处;非难他人也是没有用的,因为别人也可以用同样的话来回敬你。然而,在今天的这个世界里，一个诚实而聪明的人就应该言辞犀利。让他不留情面地说吧!
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