The lives of most men are determined by their environment. 

对于大多数人来说，生活是由环境决定的。

They accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only with resignation but even with good will. 

他们在命运的拨弄面前，不仅逆来顺受，甚至还能随遇而安。

They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly flivver that dashes in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily across the open country. 

这些人犹如街上的有轨电车，满足于在自己的轨道上运行；而对于那些不时出没于车水马龙间和欢快地奔驰在旷野上的廉价小汽车却不屑一顾。

I respect them; they are good citizens, good husbands, and good fathers, and of course somebody has to pay the taxes; but I do not find them exciting. 

我尊重这些人；他们是守法的公民、尽职的丈夫、慈祥的父亲。当然，总得有人缴纳种种税款；可是，我并不觉得他们使人振奋。

I am fascinated by the men, few enough in all conscience, who take life in their own hands and seem to mold it to their own liking.

另有些人把生活掌握在自己手里，似乎在按照自己的意愿创造生活，尽管这样的人寥若晨星，他们却深深地吸引了我。

It may be that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events we have the illusion of it. 

自由意志这玩意儿对我们来说也许纯属子虚乌有；但不管怎么说，它确实存在于我们的幻想之中。

At a crossroad it does seem to us that we might go either to the right or the left and, the choice once made, it is difficult to see that the whole course of the world's history obliged us to take the turning we did.