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This is the world out of which grows the hope, for the first time in history, of a society where there will be freedom from want and freedom from fear. Our very anxiety is born of our knowledge of what is now possible for each and for all. The number of people who consult psychiatrists today is not, as is sometimes felt, a symptom of increasing mental ill health, but rather the precursor of a world in which the hope of genuine mental health will be open to everyone, a world in which no individual feels that he need be hopelessly broken-hearted, a failure, a menace to others or a traitor to himself.
这是一个产生希望的世界，历史上人们第一次可以希望生活在一个没有贫困没有恐惧的社会里。我们的焦虑之所以产生正是因为我们明了我们每个人以及我们大家现在可以做到什么程度。现在看精神科医生的人数增加，并不像人们有时候所认为的那样，是心理不健康上升的表现，相反，它预示着一个世界的到来，在这个世界中，所有人都有希望享有真正的心理健康，没有人感到要绝望心碎，没有人感到会成为一个失败者，没有人感到会对他人构成威胁或是背叛自己。
But if, then, our anxieties are actually signs of hope, why is there such a voice of discontent abroad in the land? I think this comes perhaps because our anxiety exists without an accompanying recognition of the tragedy which will always be inherent in human life, however well we build our world. We may banish hunger, and fear of sorcery, violence, or secret police; we may bring up children who have learned to trust life and who have the spontaneity and curiosity necessary to devise ways of making trips to the moon; we cannot — as we have tried to do — banish death itself.
但是，既然我们的焦虑实际上是希望的征兆，那为什么在这块土地上到处有不满的声音呢？我想，或许这是因为在我们焦虑的同时没有认识到，不管我们如何建设我们的世界，人生固有的悲剧永远存在。我们可以驱逐饥饿，驱除对巫术、暴力和秘密警察的恐惧，我们可以养儿育女，让他们学会相信生活并具有足够的主动精神和好奇心想方设法到月球旅行，但是，我们不能，像我们尝试想做的那样，驱逐死亡本身。
