如果道德使你落落寡歡，便不應奉為守則。

－史蒂文生

這位勇敢的先知，要我們盡可能把使他人喜樂的事作為當務之急，很久以來，我就非常喜愛這句忠告，這個世界正遭受到落落寡歡的道德家損害，他們這些人要人們把善良看得比快樂更重要。他們用地獄之火來嚇唬孩子，在沙連吊死女巫，和迫害千千萬萬的人。今天這世界我們迫切需要的是來自心靈的力量，可是他們卻助長疑慮恐懼來麻痺人們的性靈。

史蒂文生並不是說，如果你的人生乏味，那麼就放棄道德標準，從放縱中追求快樂。他只不過提醒我們，真正的善是可喜的事，真正道德律下生活的人們，顯示出勇敢和快樂的，從我們中激勵起生活的喜悅。聖法蘭西斯、莫札特、艾國朋、唐瑪格斯這許許多多的人活躍在我們的心中，他們知道如何服侍世界，然而卻使世人歡笑、心靈輕鬆。

從草叢中吹過的風，枝頭的黃鶯，無邪地在地上打滾的孩子，都能激起我們對人生的光明信念。如果一定要世人經常不茍言笑，就不是正道。落落寡歡的道德觀是一盃聖水中的毒藥，在這種方式中的人生是恐懼，而不是愛，他要人多想地獄，少想天堂。我相信這樣做就離正道太遠了。

On Having Fun

“If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong.”

－ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

I have long been delighted by this warning form the gallant prophet of the lively creed which declares that to be happy, if you possibly can, is a first duty to others. How the world has suffered from the dreary moralists, those gloomy souls who want to make other people good, rather than happy！ They have darkened the lives of children with threats of hell-fire, hanged the witches at Salem, and persecuted thousands. Today, they counsel paralyzing doubt in a world that desperately needs strength of heart.

Stevenson’s words do not mean that if your life is dull you must abandon moral standards and seek happiness in self-indulgence. But they do remind us that true goodness is a joyful thing. Men of true morality proclaim courage and gladness, and rouse in us the rapture of living. St. Francis of Assisi, Mozart, Audubon, Don Marquis － there springs to mind a motley company of fellows who knew how to minister to the world, and yet call up from it a laugh and a light heart.

The wind running through the grass, the thrush in the treetops, and children tumbling in senseless mirth stir in us a bright faith in life. It is heresy to turn from them with a frown. Dreary moralizing is poison in a cup of holy water. To live that way is to live by fear, not love. It is to think less of heaven than of hell. Indeed, I believe it is the cardinal irreverence.