262．能够忘记

能够忘记。如果说这需要技巧，不如说要凭运气。那些最好要忘却的事往往记得最牢。记忆不但难以驾驭，在我们最需要它的时候，弃我们于危难之中而不顾，而且还十分愚蠢，在我们不需要它的地方，把鼻子伸得很长。它主动亲近痛苦的经历，却不理踩快乐的往事。将疾病忘却是治疗疾病的唯一药方，而我们忘掉的却只是这个药方。尽管如此，我们还要培养良好的记忆习惯，因为这既能让我们生活在天堂里，也能让我们生活在地狱中。那些天真地享受一点点快乐的乐天派却是例外。

262．Be able to forget

Be able to forget. It is more a matter of luck than of skill. The things we remember best are those better forgotten. Memory is not only unruly, leaving us in the lurch when most needed, but stupid as well, putting its nose into places where it is not wanted. In painful things it is active, but neglectful in recalling the pleasurable. Very often the only remedy for the ill is to forget it, and all we forget is the remedy Nevertheless one should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a Paradise or an Inferno. The happy are an exception who enjoy innocently their simple happiness.