With so profound a faith in the human heart and its power to grow toward the light, I find here reason and cause enough for hope and confidence in the future of mankind. The common sense of people will surely prove to them someday that mutual support and co-operation are only sensible for the security and happiness of all.
Such faith keeps me continually ready and purposeful with energy to do what one person can toward shaping the environment in which the human being can grow with freedom. This environment, I believe, is based upon the necessity for security and friendship.
I take heart in the promising fact that the world contains food supplies sufficient for the entire earth population. Our knowledge of medical science is already sufficient to improve the health of the whole human race. Our resources in education, if administered on a world scale, can lift the intelligence of the race. All that remains is to discover how to administer, upon a world scale, the benefits which some of us already have. In other words, to return to my simile, the stone must be rolled away.
This, too, can be done, as a sufficient number of human beings come to have faith in themselves and in each other. Not all will have such faith at the same moment, but there is a growing number who have the faith. Half a century ago no one had thought of world food, world health, world education. Many are thinking today of these things. In the midst of possible world war, of wholesale destruction, I find my only question is this: Are there enough people who now believe? Is there time enough left for the wise to act? It is a contest between ignorance and death, or wisdom and life. My faith in humanity stands firm.
我享受着生活的乐趣,因为我对人类及其发展有着无穷的兴趣。这一兴趣引导着我不断拓宽对人们的了解,并进一步促使我坚信“人之初,性本善”。这就是说,人生来便善解人意,富有同情心,渴望被肯定及肯定他人,期望得到简单的幸福与生存的机会;而并不愿意遭受他人迫害或去迫害他人。即使人类因环境的影响而产生了邪念,也绝不会完全为邪恶所掌控。无论怎样蜕化变质,人性美好的一面终会有所保留,也依然会有弃恶从善的可能。