There's a set of books I picked right in freshman year that marked me:
"Pensées" - Blaise Pascal: It showed me the clarity of thought a human being could have with a brain that functions correctly. Reading this is humbling. It is often reduced to a "theological" book and this is what you often see it described as.
"The Prince" - Niccolo Machiavelli: Shrewd but so much more nuanced than what 99%
The full quote isn't apocryphal. It's from a character in Balzac's Le Père Goriot.
Roughly translated: "The secret of great unexplained fortunes is a forgotten crime, because it has been properly executed."
The quote isn't really applicable in this case. Everyone reading the article knows how the Sackler family made their money.
"Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu'il a été proprement fait." Quoted from Le Père Goriot (1835) by Honoré de Balzac
我大一那会儿挑了几本书，对我影响极深： 《思想录》（Blaise Pascal 著）：它让我见识到了，一个大脑运转正常的人类能拥有何等清晰的思维。读这本书会让人心生敬畏。它常被贬低为一本“神学”书，大家也经常看到它是被这么描述的。 《君主论》（Niccolo Machiavelli 著）：精明老辣，但远比99%的人以为的更有层次…
There's a set of books I picked right in freshman year that marked me: "Pensées" - Blaise Pascal: It showed me the clarity of thought a human being could have with a brain that functions correctly. Reading this is humbling. It is often reduced to a "theological" book and this is what you often see it described as. "The Prince" - Niccolo Machiavelli: Shrewd but so much more nuanced than what 99%
或者，正如巴尔扎克在小说《高老头》（Le Père Goriot）中所写： 每一笔巨大财富的背后，都隐藏着一桩大罪
or, as Balzac wrote in his novel Le Père Goriot: behind every great fortune lies a great crime
这句完整引言并不是伪作。它出自巴尔扎克《高老头》中的一个角色。 粗略翻译过来就是：“巨大而不明来源的财富背后，都藏着一桩被遗忘的罪恶，因为它干得干净利落。” 但这句名言在当前这件事上并不适用。每个读过这篇文章的人都知道萨克勒家族（Sackler family）是怎么发家的。
The full quote isn't apocryphal. It's from a character in Balzac's Le Père Goriot. Roughly translated: "The secret of great unexplained fortunes is a forgotten crime, because it has been properly executed." The quote isn't really applicable in this case. Everyone reading the article knows how the Sackler family made their money.
“巨大而不明来源的财富背后，都藏着一桩被遗忘的罪恶，因为它干得干净利落。”引自奥诺雷·德·巴尔扎克《高老头》（1835）
"Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu'il a été proprement fait." Quoted from Le Père Goriot (1835) by Honoré de Balzac