威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆/William Somerset Maugham
The lives of most men are determined by their environment. They accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only with resignation but even with good will. They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly flitter that dashes in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily across the open country. I respect them; they are good citizens, good husbands, and good fathers, and of course somebody has to pay the taxes; but I do not find them exciting. I am fascinated by the men, few enough in all conscience, who take life in their own hands and seem to mould it to their own liking. It maybe that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events, we have the illusion of it. At a cross road it does seem to us that we might go either to the right or the left and, the choice once made, it is difficult to see that the whole course of the world's history obliged us to take the turning we did.
大多數人的生活由他們所處的環境決定。他們不僅接受既定的命運，而且順從命運的安排。他們就像街上的電車一樣，在既定的軌道上行駛，而對於那些不時出沒於車水馬龍間和歡快地奔馳於空曠原野上的廉價小汽車卻不屑一顧。我尊重他們，他們是好公民、好丈夫和好父親。當然，總得有些人來繳稅，但是，他們並沒有令人激動的地方。另外有一些人，他們把生活掌握在自己的手裏，可以按照自己的喜好去創造生活，盡管這樣的人少之又少，但我卻被他們深深地吸引著。可能世界上並沒有諸如自由意誌這樣的事情，但是無論怎樣，我們總有關於自由意誌的幻想。當我們處在一個十字路口時，我們似乎可以決定向左走還是向右走，可是一旦做出選擇，我們卻很難意識到，實際上是世界曆史的全部進程強迫我們做出了那樣的選擇。