叔本华：人际关系中的刺猬困境

One cold winter's day, a number of porcupines huddled together quite closely in order through their mutual warmth to prevent themselves from being frozen. But they soon felt the effect of their quills on one another, which made them again move apart. Now when the need for warmth once more brought them together, the drawback of the quills was repeated so that they were tossed between two evils, until they had discovered the proper distance from which they could best tolerate one another. Thus the need for society which springs from the emptiness and monotony of men's lives, drives them together; but their many unpleasant and repulsive qualities and insufferable drawbacks once more drive them apart. The mean distance which they finally discover, and which enables them to endure being together, is politeness and good manners. Whoever does not keep to this, is told in England to 'keep his distance.' By virtue thereof, it is true that the need for mutual warmth will be only imperfectly satisfied, but on the other hand, the prick of the quills will not be felt. Yet whoever has a great deal of internal warmth of his own will prefer to keep away from society in order to avoid giving or receiving trouble or annoyance.[2]

在一个寒冷的冬日，为了避免冻僵，一群箭猪相拥在一起取暖。但很快，它们感受到了各自对方的硬刺。这让它们被迫分开。但当取暖的需要让它们的身体再度靠在一起，身上的硬刺又再次把它们扎痛了。这些箭猪就被这两种苦处反复折腾，直到它们终于找到一段恰好最能容忍对方的距离为止。所以，出自人的内在空虚和单调的社交需要把人们赶到了一块，但各人许多令人厌恶的素质和无法让人容忍的缺点又把人们分开了。人们最后找到的、可以让大家在一起的适中距离就是礼貌周到和文雅惯例。谁要是不保持这一距离，在英国人们就会冲他喊道：Keep your distance！（保持距离！）由于保持这一距离，虽然相互取暖的需求只是有欠完美地得到了满足，但大家也就不会受到硬刺的刺痛。谁要是自身拥有足够的热量，那他就更宁愿避开社交，既不给别人麻烦，也不会受到别人的烦扰。