一眼看到事物好的一面。这是品味高雅之人的长处。蜜蜂为蜂巢采集花蜜，毒蛇为造毒寻找苦味。品味也是这样——有人追求好的，有人追求劣的。万物自有其用处，作为精神食粮的书籍更是如此。但是，许多人看不到事物的一千个优点，却偏偏抓住一个缺点不放，且把它挑出来横加指责，就像专捡他人心灵垃圾的人。他们喜欢记录别人的各种缺点，这只会降低他们的品位，而不是给他们的智慧增光。他们生活痛苦，因为以苦味养生，靠垃圾增肥。那些快乐的人，有些就有很好的品味，在一千个缺憾中，他们也能发现偶遇的一丝美丽。
find the good in a thing at once. it is the advantage of good taste. the bee goes to the honey for her comb, the serpent to the gall for its venom. so with taste: some seek the good, others the ill. there is nothing that has no good in it, especially in books, as giving food for thought. but many have such a scent that amid a thousand excellences they fix upon a single defect, and single it out for blame as if they were scavengers of men's minds and hearts. so they draw up a balance sheet of defects which does more credit to their bad taste than to their intelligence. they lead a sad life, nourishing themselves on bitters and battening on garbage. they have the luckier taste who midst a thousand defects seize upon a single beauty they may have hit upon by chance.
