古之學者為己，今之學者為人

Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of a well-known lawyer in my neighbourhood. `Do you wish to buy any baskets?’ he asked. `No, we do not want any,’ was the reply. `What!’ exclaimed the Indian, as he went out the gate, `do you mean to starve us?’ Having seen his industrious white neighbours so well off,  - that the lawyer has only to weave arguments, and by some magic wealth and standing followed, - he had said to himself: I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do. Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have  done his part, and then it would be the white man’s to buy them. He had not discovered that it was necessary for him to make it worth the other’s while to buy them, or at least make him think that it was so, or to make something else which it would be worth his while to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

有一個印第安人要賣籃子給梭羅的律師鄰居，結果被拒絕。梭羅說，他沒有把籃子做得讓人覺得值得花錢去買，反而抱怨，律師不過和他一樣，編織一些辯辭，恁甚麼就可以名利雙收？

話鋒一轉，梭羅說，他自己也在編織一種籃子，但並沒有去想要讓它值得別人來買。反而，更多的是（not the less），讓它本身值得自己去編。不但不想辦法讓它值得別人來買，還想辦法排除販售它的必要。他說，沒有必要以貶低別人的東西為代價，只為了彰顯自己東西的價值。

 

有一個沒有文化的立委說，文化界像乞丐一樣；要文化人「丟掉那隻要飯的碗」。確實，有不少這樣的文化人，並沒有想要編織值得人買的籃子，只是編好了籃子，其他部份便不是他的責任，政府要負責買單，或是幫他們賣。但就算他們編了有價值的籃子，還是想把它們賣出去。編了這樣的籃子，大賣後，或得了什麼獎後，並不會在受到肯定後，改而單純讓他的籃子更值得編，持續努力；仍是在想著怎樣才能再得獎、再大賣。所以說，今之學者，只是為人，而不為己。