增长本身并不能给人们带来幸福。增长和发展是两回事。有高增长率的国家并不一定就是发达国家。增长意味着在数量上的增加。它与发展相反,因为发展显然是有极限的,就像人们不会无限制地长高。而无机物或低层次的生命形式看来并没有这样的自然极限。增长的进程有时甚至是以发展为代价的。德国思想家歌德就发现,不断地给植物施肥只能使植物不断长高长大,但不能开花。想要让植物开花结果,必须抑制它的生长。 Growth itself does not bring happiness to people. Growth and development are two different things. Countries with high growth rates are not necessarily developed countries. Growth means a quantitative increase. It is the opposite of development, because development obviously has its limits, just as people do not grow indefinitely. And inorganic or low-level forms of life do not seem to have such natural limits. The process of growth is sometimes at the expense of development. Goethe, a German thinker, found that continuous fertilization of plants only allowed the plant to grow taller and taller but could not bloom. If you want plants to blossom, they must be restrained from growing.