英国小说家毛姆的《月亮和六便士》，以画家保罗·高更为原型，用第一人称的口吻描绘了一个敢于放弃现实去追求理想，却又不被世人理解与接受的人生。

故事讲述的是证券经纪人思特里克兰德为了心中追求绘画的梦想，毅然放弃了现有的安乐生活——稳定的工作、和睦的家庭，只身一人前往巴黎。然而在这个陌生的国度，他不仅身无分文、饥寒交迫，他的梦想也不为人所接纳。无奈下他只得远离人世的喧嚣嘈杂，跑到塔希提岛上，最终寻得了安宁与合适的艺术氛围。

正如爱情和面包的选择一般，在理想和现实的面前，我们又该何去何从?是抬头仰望和追求月亮，亦或是捡起地上的六便士继续生活?

而书中给出的答案是：无论是月亮还是六便士，每个人的选择都是有自己的自由的。能够勇敢选择，便是一种人生的自由。

这是一部刻画十分深刻、情节引人入胜的长篇小说。本文摘录了其中一些经典语录，供大家品读。

Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain.

在这世上我们每个人都是孤独的。每个人都被囚禁在一座铁塔里，只能依靠符号来跟同伴交流，这些符号没有共同的价值，所以它们是模糊和没有确切意义的。

We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them.

我们可怜兮兮地想向他人传达自己内心的财富，然而他们却没有接收的能力，于是我们只能孤独地行走，尽管肩并着肩但却并不在一块，无法了解他人也无法被他人所了解。

We are like people living in a country whose language they know so little that, with all manner of beautiful and profound things to say, they are condemned to the banalities of the conversation manual.

我们就像住在这样的一个国家里，对该国的语言了解很少，以至于尽管有很多优美而又深刻的话语想要说出口，却只能局限在谈话手册上的平庸话里。

Their brain is seething with ideas, and they can only tell you that the umbrella of the gardener's aunt is in the house.

我们的脑子里充满了想法，却只能说出“园丁的姑姑的伞在房子里”这样的话来。

Feelings have a rational reason cannot understand.

感情有着理智所不能理解的缘由。

The desire for approbation is perhaps the most deeply seated instinct of civilized man.

渴望能得到认可也许成为了现代人最根深蒂固的本能。

I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast him amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not.

我认为有些人是没有出生在合适的地方的。机缘把他们随便丢到了一个地方去，但是他们会常常想念一个自己都不知道在哪里的家乡。

Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among man he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.

有时候一个人会偶然遇到这样一个地方，连他自己都神秘地感觉是自己的归属之地，是他想念着的家乡，于是他便会在从未见过的景色中和从未遇见的人中安定下来，就像是一切都是他儿时熟悉的一般。在这里他终于找到了安宁。

“I tell you I’ve got to paint. I can’t help myself. When a man falls into the water it doesn’t matter how he swims, well or badly: he’s got to get out or else he’ll drown.”

我告诉你我必须画画。我控制不住自己。当一个男人掉进水里的时候，他游得好不好已经没有关系了：他必须出来要不就会被淹死。

“Haven’t you been in love since you came to Paris?”

“I haven’t got time for that sort of nonsense. Life isn’t long enough for love and art.”

你来到巴黎之后难道没有谈过恋爱吗?

我没时间做没意义的事。生命太短暂了，根本没时间又谈恋爱又搞艺术。