What do Bertrand Russell's three wishes mean?

Bertrand Russell

I have three wishes in my life, simple but radical: one is the desire for love, the other is the pursuit of knowledge, and the third is the pity for our endless suffering. These three wishes, like strong winds, have forced me to drift helplessly in the deep sea of pain to the other side of despair.

I pursue it because it gives me ecstasy-ecstasy drama is enough for me to give up this life and enjoy it for a while; I look for love because it relieves loneliness. Every time we are lonely, we look down at the fate of heaven and earth and see a bottomless pit of despair. I have sought love, secondly, because if I get love, I can see the mysterious kingdom of heaven seen by sages and poets. What I want in my life, although I am afraid that ordinary people can't get it, can also be said to be my income.

I am also passionate about knowledge. I want to hear people's thoughts and know why the stars shine ... that's all I have, nothing else.

The combination of love and knowledge brought me into the gate of heaven, but I was finally held back by compassion. Painful songs often haunt my mind: hungry babies, oppressed people, helpless old people abandoned by their children, loneliness, poverty and pain in the world make our life difficult to see clearly. I am willing to spend my whole life trying to release it, but I can't get what I want, because it is also very sad.

My life is just like this, but I don't think my life has been wasted; If God permits, do it when you are happy.

The translation is as follows:

Three passions that I live for.

Russell

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have dominated my life, namely, the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like strong winds, have blown me over a sea of anguish on the verge of despair, leaving my life disoriented. I pursue love, first of all, because it makes me ecstatic. The ecstasy of love always makes me willing to sacrifice everything else in my life for a few hours of such happiness. I have sought love, next, because it relieves loneliness-the terrible loneliness that one shivering consciousness feels when looking into the cold lifeless abyss at the end of the world.

I have sought love, finally, because the union of love has brought me to see in a mysterious miniature the heaven that saints and poets once imagined. This is what I pursue. Although life seems worthless, this is what I finally found.

I pursue knowledge with the same enthusiasm. I want to know the human mind. I wonder why the stars are brilliant. I have also tried to understand the power of Pythagoras theory, which makes numbers dominate impermanence. I have made some achievements in this field, but not much.

As long as love and knowledge exist, they will always lead us to heaven. But pity is tortured by famine, innocent people are tortured by oppressors, helpless old people become an abominable burden in the eyes of sons, and the world is full of loneliness, poverty and pain-all these make a mockery of human life. I long to reduce evil, but I can't, so I feel pain.

This is my life. I think this life is worth living. If it is really possible to give me another chance, I will be happy to live it again.