绝望的主妇中提到的：Better angles and inner demons

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Better Angels: "Better angels" refers to the positive and morally upright aspects of a person's character. It represents the innate goodness, compassion, and virtuous qualities within an individual. When someone appeals to their "better angels," it means they are striving to make choices guided by their higher principles, ethics, and kindness.

"上善天使" 指的是一个人性格中积极和道德上正直的方面。它代表了个体内在的善良、同情心和美德品质。当有人呼吁他们的 "更善良的天使" 时，意味着他们正在努力做出由更高原则、道德和善意指导的选择。

Inner Demons："Inner demons" refers to the negative or dark aspects of a person's character and inner nature. These can include inner conflicts, destructive tendencies, temptations, or personal struggles with vices, such as anger, jealousy, or addiction. Confronting one's inner demons means facing and addressing these negative aspects.

"内驱恶魔" 指的是一个人性格和内在本性的负面或黑暗方面。这可能包括内在冲突、自毁倾向、诱惑，或与愤怒、嫉妒或成瘾等恶习的个人斗争。面对自己内心的恶魔意味着面对和处理这些负面方面。
"First Inaugural [ɪ'nɔːɡjərəl] Address of Abraham Lincoln". （亚伯拉罕·林肯首次就职常说） Desperately wishing to avoid a civil war, Lincoln ended with this plea:

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic ['mɪstɪk（神秘的；神秘主义者的 chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone ['hɑːtstəʊn] all over this broad land, will yet swell [swel（增加声音、音量）] the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

我不愿意就此结束。我们不是敌人，而是朋友；我们必须不成为敌人。尽管激情上头会让我们的情感关系扭曲，但没必要绷断。回忆的神秘之弦，从每一片战场和爱国者之墓延伸展开，在这宽广的国土上与每一颗搏动的心房、温暖的壁炉联结起来，当我们本性中的更为美好的天使——只要他们真的乐意去再次触抚琴弦，毫无疑问，它们仍将会奏响联邦的合唱曲。。

斯蒂芬·亚瑟·平克，加拿大–美国实验心理学家、认知科学家和科普作家。平克广泛宣传演化心理学和心智计算理论的心态而闻名于世。1976年毕业于麦基尔大学，1979年获哈佛大学博士学位，专攻实验心理学。在史丹佛作完一年研究后，到麻省理工学院任教。

Five inner demons (Chapter 8)

Pinker rejects what he calls the "Hydraulic [haɪ'drɔːlɪk] Theory of Violence" – the idea "that humans harbor an inner drive toward aggression (a death instinct or thirst for blood), which builds up inside us and must periodically be discharged. Nothing could be further from contemporary scientific understanding of the psychology of violence." Instead, he argues, research suggests that "aggression is not a single motive, let alone a mounting urge. It is the output of several psychological systems that differ in their environmental triggers, their internal logic, their neurological basis, and their social distribution." He examines five such systems:

• Predatory or Practical Violence: violence deployed as a practical means to an end.
• Dominance: the urge for authority, prestige, glory, and power. Pinker argues that dominance motivations can occur within individuals and coalitions of racial, ethnic, religious, or national groups.
• Revenge: the moralistic [ˌmɒrə'lɪstɪk（狭隘道德观的）] urge toward retribution, punishment, and justice.
• Sadism: the deliberate infliction of pain for no purpose but to enjoy a person's suffering.
• Ideology: a shared belief system, usually involving a vision of utopia, that justifies unlimited violence in pursuit of unlimited good.
  

Four better angels (Chapter 9)

Pinker examines four motives that can orient [humans] away from violence and towards cooperation and altruism ['æltruɪzəm（利他主义）]. He identifies:

• Empathy: which prompts us to feel the pain of others and to align their interests with our own.
• Self-Control: which allows us to anticipate the consequences of acting on our impulses and to inhibit them accordingly.
• The Moral Sense: which sanctifies a set of norms and taboos that govern the interactions among people in a culture. These sometimes decrease violence but can also increase it when the norms are tribal, authoritarian, or puritanical.
• Reason: which allows us to extract ourselves from our parochial[pə'rəʊkiəl] vantage points.