威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆/William Somerset Maugham
威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆（1874—1965），英國著名小說家、劇作家、散文家。也是醫學係學生，後轉而致力寫作。他的文章常在譏諷中潛藏對人性的憐憫與同情。《人性的枷鎖》是傾其畢生心血的巨著，也為他奠定了偉大小說家的不朽地位。本文的《微塵與棟梁》指他人的小缺點與自己的大缺點，以此為篇名喻義深遠，希冀藉此申明責己與責人之道。
It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of others.I suppose the reason is that we know all th e circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in our selves what we cannot excuse in others.We turn our attention away from our own defects,and when we are forced by untoward events to consider t hem,find it easy to condone them.For all I know we are right to do thi s;they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in ourselves together.
But when we come to judge others,it is not by ourselves as we reall y are that we judge them,but by an image that we have formed of ourselv es from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or wou ld discredit us in the eyes of the world.To take a trivial instance:ho w scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie;but who can s ay that he has never told not one,but a hundred?
There is not much to choose between men.They are all a hotchpotch o f greatness and littleness,of virtue and vice,of nobility and baseness.Some have more strength of character,or more opportunity,and so in o ne direction or another give their instincts freer play,but potentially they are the same.For my part,I do not think I am any better or any wo rse than most people,but I know that if I set down every action in my l ife and every thought that has crossed my mind,the world would consider me a monster of depravity.The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to ot hers.It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows,even t he most eminent and respectable,with humor,and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.
令人好奇的是，與他人的過失相比，我們自己的過失往往不是那麽可憎。我想，原因是我們了解一切導致過失出現的情況，因而，能夠想辦法原諒自己犯一些不容許他人犯的過錯。我們不關注自己的缺點，即使身陷困境，不得不正視它們時，我們也會很容易就寬恕自己。據我所知，我們這樣做是正確的。缺點是我們自己的一部分，我們必須接納自己的好與壞。
但當我們評判別人時，情況就不一樣了。我們不是通過真正的自我，而是用另外一種自我形象來判斷，完全摒除了在任何世人眼中，會傷害到自己的虛榮或者體麵的事物。舉一個小例子：當覺察到別人說謊時，我們是多麽地不屑啊！但是有的可以說自己從未說過謊話可能還不止一百次呢！
人與人之間沒什麽大的區別。他們皆是偉大與渺小，善良與邪惡，高貴與低賤的混合體。有些人性格比較堅毅，機會也較多，因此在這個或者那個方向上，更能自由地發揮自己的天資，但是人類的潛質都是同樣的。至於我自己，我認為自己不比多數人更好或更差，但是我知道，如果我記下我生命中每一個行動和每一個掠過我心頭的想法的話，世人將會把我看成一個邪惡的怪物。每個人都會有這樣的怪念頭，這樣的認識應能啟發我們寬容自己，也寬容他人。同時，若因此使我們在看待他人時，即使是對天下最優秀最令人尊敬的人，也可以有幽默感，而且也不太苛求自己的話，那也是很有益的。