Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work which is irksome, and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To start with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter.
工作究竟应该视为幸福之源，还是不幸之因，这也许还是个疑问。当然有许多工作令人极其厌烦，超负荷的工作总是让人十分痛苦（倍感痛苦）。但我认为，假如工作负担不是过重，
对大多数人来说，即便是最乏味的工作也没有（赋闲）无所事事那么痛苦。根据工作的性质和工作者的能力，可以把工作分成各种层次，从单纯的解闷到深度的愉悦。大多数人必须做的大多数工作本身并没有趣味，但即使是这样的工作也有某些极大的好处。首先， 它占去了一天中的好几个小时，使你不必费神（增加）拿主意自己该干什么。在可以自由选择如何消磨时间的时候，大多数人都茫然不知所措，想不出一件愉快的值得干的事情。不管他们选定了什么，“其它事情可能更有意思”的想法还是困扰着他们。
whatever什么意思