Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign.汤姆这会儿觉得，这个世界原来并不那么空虚无聊。他无意中发现了人类行为的一个重要规律，那就是要让大人或小孩渴望做一件事，只需使做事的机会难以获得即可。如果他是一个聪明的哲人，如同本书作者一样，他此时就能悟出这个道理：“工作”是一个人被迫做的事情，而“玩耍”则不是他非做不可的事情。这个道理有助于他明白何以做假花或者蹬踏车是工作，而玩滚木球或爬勃朗峰只能算消遣。英国一些阔绰的绅士夏季每天驾着四套马车沿大路跑上二三十英里，因为这样做可以花掉不少钱；可如果付钱雇他们驾车载客，消遣便成了工作，他们是不愿干的。
欣赏：
1.越是得不到的东西越想得到。
2.努力把工作变成娱乐，才会有主动性。