《民主：真与假》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

It is a dangerous, but agreeable, game to play the prophet, perhaps unwise; but while admitting that, I am going to do so, not because I feel sure, but because I want to sift my own thoughts. I may be told “why not do so in private?” I’ve done that already. Probably it does not matter what an old man says, “He is a weather beaten block waiting for axe or fire.” Whatever Ideals are mine, there are few which are in agreement with the fashion of to-day. Still I am capable of looking forward. I’ve looked back a great deal in my life, and been a humble student of “Cause and Effect.” Young enough to believe, even though it lies distant from hence, in Utopia, and I make bold to say so. I still believe in the human race. I still believe in a capacity for repentance and change of direction from bad to a better state of things. It is likely that the desirable, according to my philosophy, would be the undesirable to many, perhaps, just now, most people! Nevertheless I mean to state it.

预言未来是危险的，却也是令人愉快的游戏，或许并不明智。然而，尽管承认这一点，我仍要这样做，不是因为我确信无疑，而是因为我想梳理自己的思绪。有人或许会对我说：「何不私下做呢？」我已经私下做过了。一位老人说什么，大概无关紧要，「他是一块饱经风霜的木块，只等着斧头或火焰。」无论我的理想是什么，如今合乎时宜的寥寥无几。不过我仍有能力向前看。我这一生中大量地回顾过去，也一直是「因果」的谦卑学生。我年轻得足以相信乌托邦，哪怕它离此地遥远，我斗胆这样说。我仍然相信人类。我仍然相信人有悔改的能力，有从坏转向较好境地的能力。按照我的哲学，那值得向往的，很可能对许多人来说并不值得向往，也许眼下对大多数人来说都是如此！尽管如此，我仍打算把它说出来。

William Morris made a delightful story, “News from Nowhere”; he thought that Socialism would realise his Ideal, perhaps it might; anyway Socialism is a pleasanter word than Individualism, it suggests “Thou,” the other cries “I.” Thou has not been in the air of late. I has been so, and prominently; of this, more presently!

威廉·莫里斯写过一个令人愉快的故亊，「乌有乡消息」。他认为社会主义会实现他的理想，也许真会如此。无论如何，社会主义比个人主义听起来更令人愉快，它暗示「你」，另一个则高喊「我」。「你」近来不怎么流行。「我」却流行，而且十分显眼。这一点，容后再谈！

Some great and wise men have spent considerable energies in building Utopia. Jesus Christ, Moses, Hamurrabbi, and Mohammed, Plato, Sir Thomas More, and, when I come to think of it, all leaders of thought have played with the bricks of that entertaining place. I imagine that the folk, who think at all, form a picture of their preference, which includes the future with the present. Seemingly, the future has a habit of taking care of itself; that is possibly a fatalistic fallacy! What will be done in the future is in the making of the present. The flower is forming out of sight. We have no reason for knowing what kind of being the man of the future, even of the near future, is to be. One thing, however, is pretty certain; he will be as good or evil, ignorant or learned, as he chooses. We might reason together for a year as to the meaning of Good and Evil. To clear the way I will state now that I am a firm believer in Free Will, in as far as conduct is concerned. We have to die; that is a physical law as that we live is; but we can retard even the supreme victor, death, by effort of Will. To wish ardently is half way to obtaining.

一些伟大而睿智的人曾花费相当多的精力去建造乌托邦。耶稣基督、摩西、汉谟拉比、穆罕默德、柏拉图、托马斯·莫尔爵士，等我仔细一想，所有思想领袖都玩过那座有趣之地的砖块。我想，凡是会思考的人，都会在心目中形成一幅自己所偏好的图景，其中包含未来与当下。表面看来，未来有照顾自己的习惯，这也许是一种宿命论的谬误！未来要做的事，正在当下的形成之中。花朵正在看不见的地方成形。我们没有理由知道未来的人，甚至是近未来的人，会成为什么样的存在。然而有一点相当确定：他会选择成为善或恶、无知或有学问的人。我们尽可以就善与恶的含义一起推理一年。为了扫清道路，我现在要说明，就行为而言，我坚定地相信自由意志。我们终有一死，这正如我们活着一样，是一条物理法则。但即使面对至高无上的胜利者死亡，我们也能凭借意志的努力加以延缓。热切地渴望，就已经走完了获得的一半路程。