超经典的英语美文带翻译41篇
1\学会生活在现实中
Learn to live in the present moment
To a large degree,the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live on the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are---always!
我们内心是否平和在很大程度上是由我们是否能生活在现实之中所决定的．不管昨天或去年发生了什么，不管明天可能发生或不发生什么，现实才是你时时刻刻所在之处．
2/Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about variety of things--all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns dominate your present moments, so much so that we end up anxious,frustrated,depressed,and hopeless. On the flip side, we also postpone our gratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing that "someday" will be much better than today. Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that 'someday' never actually arrives. Jhon Lennone once said, "Life is what is happening while we are busy making other plans." When we are busy making 'other plans', our children are busy growing up, the people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape, and our dreams are slipping away. In short, we miss out on life.
毫无疑问，我们很多人掌握了一种神经兮兮的艺术，即把生活中的大部分时间花在为种种事情担心忧虑上－－而且常常是同时忧虑许多事情．我们听凭过去的麻烦和未来的担心控制我们此时此刻的生活，以至我们整日焦虑不安，委靡不振，甚至沮丧绝望．而另一方面我们又推迟我们的满足感，推迟我们应优先考虑的事情，推迟我们的幸福感，常常说服自己＂有朝一日＂会比今天更好．不幸的是，如此告戒我们朝前看的大脑动力只能重复来重复去，以至＂有朝一日＂哟贫农公元不会真的来临．约翰．列侬曾经说过：＂生活就是当我们忙于制定别的计划时发生的事．＂当我们忙于指定种种＂别的计划＂时，我们的孩子在忙于长大，我们挚爱的人里去了甚至快去世了，我们的体型变样了，而我们的梦想也在消然溜走了．一句话，我们错过了生活．
3/Many people lives as if life is a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isn't. In fact, no one have a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. When we put our attention on the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future--we won't have enoughh money,our children will get into trouble,we will get old and die,whatever.
许多人的生活好象是某个未来日子的彩排．并非如此．事实上，没人能保证他或她肯定还活着．现在是我们所拥有的唯一时间，现在也是我们能控制的唯一的时间．当我们将注意力放在此时此刻时，我们就将恐惧置于脑后．恐惧就是我们担忧某些事情会在未来发生－－我们不讳有足够的钱，我们的孩子会惹上麻烦，我们会变老，会死去，诸如此类．
4/To combat fear, the best stradegy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present. Mark Twain said,"I have been through some terrible things in life, some of which actually happened." I don't think I can say it any better. Practice keeping your attention on the here and now. Your effort will pay great dividends.
若要克服恐惧心理，最佳策略是学会将你的注意力拉回此时此刻．马克．吐温说过：＂我经历过生活中一些可怕的事情，有些的确发生过．＂我想我说不出比这更具内涵的话．经常将注意力集中于此情此景，此时此刻，你的努力终会有丰厚的报偿．
5\How High Can You Jump?
Flea trainers have observed a strange habit of fleas while training them. Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it. The fleas will jump up and hit the top of the cardboard box over and over and over again.
As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious. The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.
When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box. They won't jump out because they can't jump out. Why? The reason is simple. They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high.
Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that's all they can do!
Many times, people do the same thing. They restrict themselves and never reach their potential. Just like the fleas, they fail to jump higher, thinking they are doing all they can do.
跳蚤训练人在训练跳蚤时发现跳蚤有一个奇怪的习惯。若把跳蚤放在一个有顶盖的盒子里，他们会不断地跳起来，撞击顶盖。
你观察他们跳起来撞击顶盖，会慢慢发现一个有趣的现象。他们仍会跳起来，但不会再撞到顶盖。
当你把顶盖拿开时，跳蚤还会接着跳，但却不会跳出盒子。为什么呢？原因很简单。它们已经习惯了只跳那么高。
一旦它们习惯只跳这么高之后，它们就只能跳这么高了。
很多时候，人们也是一样。他们自己限制了自己，从来不去发掘自己的潜力。就像跳蚤一样，没能跳得更高，还以为已经到了自己能力的极限。
6\热爱生活（Love Your Life ）
Henry David Thoreau/享利.大卫.梭罗
However mean your life is,meet it and live it ;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
不论你的生活如何卑贱，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一样光亮；在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的，不靠城镇来支援他们；可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段来对付生活，他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧！不要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你的思想。
7\父爱和母爱
Motherly and Fatherly Love
Motherly love by its very nature is unconditional. Mother loves the newborn infant because it is her child, not because the child has fulfilled any specific condition, or lived up to any specific expectation. Unconditional love corresponds in one of 'the deepest longings, not only of the child, but of every human being; on the other hand, to be loved because of one's merit, because one deserves it, always leaves doubt: maybe I did not please the person whom I want to love me, maybe this or that--there is always a fear that love could disappear. Furthermore, "deserved" love easily leaves a bitter feeling that one is not loved for oneself, that one is loved only because one pleases, that one is, in the last analysis, not loved at all but used. No wonder that we all cling to the longing for motherly love, as children and also as adults. The relationship to father is quite different. Mother is the home we come from, she is nature, soil, the ocean; father does not represent any such natural home. He has little connection with the child in the first years of his life, and his importance for the child in this early period cannot be compared with that of mother. But while father does not represent the natural world, he represents the other pole of human existence; the world of thought, of man-made things, of law and order, of discipline, of travel and adventure.
Father is the one who teaches the child, who shows him the road into the world. Fatherly love is conditional love. Its principle is "1 love you because you fulfill my expectations, because you do your duty, because you are like me." In conditional fatherly love we find, as with unconditional motherly love, a negative and a positive aspect. The negative aspect is the very fact that fatherly love has to be deserved, that it can be lost if one does not do what is expected.
The positive side is equally important. Since his love is conditional, I can do something to acquire it, I can work for it; his love is not outside of my control as motherly love is.
母爱和父爱
母爱的天性是无条件的。母亲爱她的新生婴儿，因为那是她的孩子，而不是因为这个小孩符合了什么特别的条件，也不是因为孩子达到了她的某种特别的期望。无条件的爱符合——不只是小孩子，而且是每个人最深切的渴望。另一方面，如果因为自己的优点，因为自己值得爱而被别人爱，我们总会心存疑虑：可能我没有使那个我希望他(她)爱我的人满意吧?可能这个，可能那个——总是害怕那份爱会消失。而且“值得的”爱很容易令人产生一种辛酸的感觉：似乎一个人不是因为自身而被爱，而是因为自己可以令别人高兴，令别人满足才被爱，似乎自己根本不是被爱而是被利用了。无怪乎我们全都依恋、渴望着母爱，不论小孩还是成年人都如此。
孩子同父亲的关系就完全不同了。母亲是我们的发源地，她是自然、是土壤、是海洋；父亲不代表任何这些自然的归宿。在孩子初生的前几年中，父亲和孩子接触很少。在此期间，对于孩子来说，父亲的重要性远远比不上母亲。但是，虽然父亲不代表这自然的世界，他却代表了人类存在的另一极——思想的世界、人造的世界、法律和秩序的世界、纪律的世界、旅行和冒险的世界。教育孩子的人是父亲，向孩子展示通向世界之路的人也是父亲。父爱是有条件的。它的原则是：“因为你达到了我的期望，因为你完成了你的职责，因为你像我，所以我爱你。”在有条件的父爱中，我们(像在无条件的母爱中一样)发现它既有消极的一面，又有积极的一面。消极的一面是父爱的给予只在你值得得到爱的条件下，而且如果你没有做到他所期望的事，你可能会失去这份爱。积极的一面也同样重要。既然他的爱是有条件的，我可以采取一些办法去获取它，我可以为之而努力；他的爱像母爱一样，并没有越出我的控制力
8\Russell on Affection (罗素论爱)
The best type of affection is reciprocally life-giving; each receives affection with joy and gives it without effort, and each finds the whole world more interesting in consequence of the existence of this reciprocal happiness. There is, however, another kind, by no means uncommon, in which one person sucks the vitality of the other, one receives what the other gives, but gives almost nothing in return. Some very vital people belong to this bloodsucking type. They extract the vitality from one victim after another, but while they prosper and grow interesting, those upon whom they live grow pale and dim and dull. Such people use others as means to their own ends, and never consider them as ends in themselves. Fundamentally they are not interested in those whom for the moment they think they love; they are interested only in the stimulus to their owe activities,
perhaps of a quite impersonal sort. Evidently this springs from some defect in their nature, but it is one not altogether easy either to diagnose of to cure. It is a characteristic frequently associated with great ambition, and is rooted, I should say, in an unduly one-sided view of what makes human happiness. Affection in the sense of a genuine reciprocal interest of two persons in each other, not solely as means to each other’s good, but rather as a combination having a common good, is one of the most important elements of real happiness, and the man whose ego is so enclosed within steel walls that this enlargement of it is impossible misses the best that life has to offer, however successful he may be in his career. A too powerful ego is a prison from which a man must escape if he is to enjoy the world to the full. A capacity for genuine affection is one of the marks of the man who has escaped form this prison of self. To receive affection is by no means enough; affection which is received should liberate the affection which is to be given, and only where both exist in equal measure does affection achieve its best possibilities.
最好的那种爱是彼此愉悦的爱；彼此很愉快地接受，很自然地给出，并且由于有了这种互惠的快乐，彼此都觉得整个世界更有趣味。然而，还有一种决非少见的爱，那就是一方吸收着另一方的活力，接受着另一方的给出，但他这一方几乎毫无回报。某些生命力极旺的人便属于这吸血的一类。他们把一个又一个牺牲者的活力吸净，但是当他们越发生机勃勃，兴致盎然之时，那些被榨取的人却变得越来越苍白、黯淡和迟钝。这种人总是把他人当作工具来实现自己的目标，却从不考虑他人也有他自己的目标。他们一时以为他们爱着那些人，其实那些人根本引不起他们的兴趣；他们感兴趣的不过是为自己的活动添些刺激，而他们的活动也许当属全无人格的那种。这种情形显然源于他们本性上的某种缺陷，但是这种缺陷既不容易诊断也不容易治疗。它往往与极大的野心有关，同时也是由于他们总是不恰当地从单方面去看待人生幸福的缘故。两人真正相互关心意义的爱，不仅是促进彼此幸福的手段，而且是促进共同幸福的手段，是真正快乐的最重要因素之一。凡是把自我禁锢起来不能扩展的人，必然错失人生所能提供的最好的东西，不管他在事业上如何成功。太强的自我是一座监狱，你若想充分地享受人生，就得从这座监狱中逃脱。能有真正的爱，这是一个人已逃出自我监狱的标志之一。光接受爱是绝对不够的；接受的爱应当能激发你奉献出自己的爱，惟有当接受的爱和奉献出的爱等量存在时，爱才能达到它的最佳状态。
9\Blood, Toil, Sweat and Tears
热血、辛劳、眼泪和汗水
In this crisis I think I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today, and I hope that any of my friends and colleagues or former colleagues who are affected by the political reconstruction will make all allowances for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act.
在这生死存亡之际，如果我今天没有向下院作长篇演讲，我希望能够得到你们的宽恕，我还希望，因为这次政府改组而受到影响的任何朋友和同事，或者以前的同事，会对礼节上的不周之处予以充分谅解，这种礼节上的欠缺，到目前为止是在所难免的。
I say to the House as I said to Ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, sweat and tears.
正如我曾对参加本届政府的成员所说的那样，我要对下院说："我没什么可以奉献，有的，只是热血、辛劳、眼泪和汗水。
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.
摆在我们面前的，是一场极为痛苦的严峻的考验。
We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.
在我们面前，有许多许多漫长的斗争和苦难的岁月。
You ask, what is our policy?
你们问：我们的政策是什么?
I say it is to wage war by land, sea and air.
我要说，在海上、陆地和空中进行战争。
War with all our might and with all the strength God has given up, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.
我们的政策就是用我们全部能力，用上帝所给予我们的全部力量，同一个在人类黑暗悲惨的罪恶史上所从未有过的穷凶极恶的暴政进行战争。
That is our policy.
这就是我们的政策。
You ask, what is our aim?
你们问：我们的目标是什么?
I can answer in one word.
我可以用一个词来回答：
It is victory.
那就是胜利。
Victory at all costs;victory in spite of all terrors;victory, however long and hand the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
不惜一切代价，去赢得胜利；无论多么可怕，也要赢得胜利，无论道路多么遥远和艰难，也要赢得胜利，因为没有胜利，就不能生存。
Let that be realized.
大家必须认识到这一点。
No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal.
没有胜利就不复有大英帝国，没有胜利就不复有大英帝国所象征的一切，没有胜利就不复有多少世纪以来的强烈要求和冲动：人类应当向自己的目标迈进。
I take up my task in buoyancy and hope.
但是当我挑起这个担子的时候，我是心情愉快、满怀希望的。
I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men.
我深信，人们不会听任我们的事业遭受失败。
I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, "Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."
此时此刻，我觉得我有权利要求大家的支持，我要说："来吧，让我们同心协力，一道前进。"
10\The Four Freedoms(Franklin D. Roosevelt)
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
我们力求安定的未来日子里,我们期待一个以人类四大基本自由为基础的世界.
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.
第一是在全世界任何地方发表言论和表达意见的自由。
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world.
第二是在全世界任何地方，人人有以自己的方式来崇拜上帝的自由。
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.
第三是不虞匮乏的自由－－这种自由，就世界范围来讲，就是一种经济上的融洽关系，它将保证全世界每一个国家的居民都过健全的、和平时期的生活。
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.
第四是免除恐惧的自由－－这种自由，就世界范围来讲，就是世界性的裁减军备，要以一种彻底的方法把它裁减到这样的程度：务使世界上没有一个国家有能力向全世界任何地区的任何邻国进行武力侵略。
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
这绝不是对遥远未来的幻想。在我们这个时代，我们这代人就可以在这一实实在在的基础之上，建立起一个新的世界。这个世界是与独裁者们想用炸弹炸出来的所谓暴政新秩序截然相反的。
Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
自美国有史以来，我们一直致力于变革。这是一种从未间断的和平革命，一种扎实渐进的革命，悄然地进行调整，以适应变化多端的形势，没有集中营，也没有万人坑。我们所追求的
世界新秩序是自由国家之间的合作，是自由国家在一个友好、文明的世界里同心协力，共同努力。
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.
我们的国家已经将它的命运交到她千百万自由男女的手里、脑里和心里。她已将她对于自由的信仰交由上帝指引。自由意味着在任何地方，人权高于一切。我们支持一切为争取、捍卫这种权力而斗争的人们。我们的力量就在于我们目标一致。
To that high concept there can be no end save victory.
为了实现这一崇高的信念，我们不获全胜，绝不罢休。
10、\Hard Work Is Good for Health努力工作有利健康
Scientists find that the hard-working prestigious people live longer than average men and women. Career women are healthier than housewives. Evidences show that the jobless are in poorer health than job-holders. An investigation shows that whenever the unemployment rate increases by 1%, the death rate increases correspondingly by 2%. All this comes down to one point: work is helpful to health.
Why is work good for health? It is because work keeps people busy, away from lonehness and solitude. Researches show that people feel unhappy, worried and solitary when they have nothing to do. Instead, the happiest are those who are busy. Many high achievers who love their careers feel they are most happy when they are working hard. Work serves as a bridge between man and reality. By work, people come into contact with each other. By collective activity, they find friendship and warmth. This is helpful to health. The loss of work means the loss of everything. It affects man spiritually and hence makes him liable to disease.
Besides, work gives one the sense of fulfillment and a sense of achievement. Work makes one feel his value and status in society. When a writer finishes his writing or a doctor snccessfully operates on a patient or a teacher sees his students grow, they are happy beyond words.
From the above we can come to the conclusion that the more you work, the happier and healthier you will be.
Let us work hard and study well and live a happy and healthy life.
让我们努力工作，好好学习，过幸福健康的生活。
科学家们发现努力工作的名人比一般人寿命长，职业妇女比家庭妇女健康。有证据表明，失业者比在业人员健康状况差。调查表明失业率每增长l％，死亡率相应增长2％。所有这些都表明：工作有利于健康。
为什么工作对健康有好处?因为工作使人忙碌，不会寂寞、孤独。研究表明，人们无事可做
时会感到不愉快、忧虑、孤独。忙碌反而使人愉快。许多热爱事业、卓有成就的人在努力工作时感到最幸福。工作可作为人与现实之间的桥梁：通过工作，人们彼此接触；通过集体活动，人们得到友谊和温暖。这有利于健康。失去工作就是失去一切，它影响人的精神，使人容易得病。
此外，工作给人以充实感和成就感。工作使人感到自身的价值和社会地位。作家写完书，医生成功地给病人做完手术，教师看到学生的成长，他们有说不出的幸福。
从以上我们可以得出这一结论：工作越多越幸福，也越健康.
让我们努力工作，好好学习，过幸福健康的生活.
11、All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of ―Eat, drink, and be merry,― but most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. he becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.
Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him
more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
我们大家都读过一些令人激动的故事，这些故事里的主人公仅仅活在有限并且特定的时间内，有时长达一年，有时短到２４小时。但我们总是有兴趣发现，那命中注定要死的是那些有选择自由的人，而不是那些活动范围被严格限定了的判了刑的犯人。
这样的故事让我们思考，在相似的情况下，我们该怎么办，作为终有一死的人，在那最终的几个小时内安排什么事件，什么经历，什么交往？在回顾往事时，我们该找到什么快乐？什么悔恨？
有时我想到，过好每一天是个非常好的习惯，似乎我们明天就会死去。这种态度鲜明地强调了生命的价值。我们应该以优雅、精力充沛、善知乐趣的方式过好每一天。而当岁月推移，在经常瞻观未来之时日、未来之年月中，这些又常常失去。当然，也有人愿按伊壁鸠鲁的信条―吃、喝和欢乐‖去生活。（译注：伊壁鸠鲁是古希腊哲学家，他认为生活的主题目的是享乐，而最高的享受唯通过合理的生活，如自我控制才能得到。因为生活享受的目的被过分强调，而达此目的之手段被忽视，所以伊壁鸠鲁的信徒现今变为追求享乐的人。他们的信条是：―让我们吃喝，因为明天我们就死亡‖），但绝大多数人还是被即将面临死亡的必然性所折磨。
在故事里，注定要死的主人公往往在最后一刻由某种命运的突变而得救，但几乎总是他的价值观被改变了。他们对生活的意义和它永恒的精神价值变得更具欣赏力了。常常看到那些生活或已生活在死亡的阴影之中的人们都赋予他们所做的每件事以芳醇甜美。
但是，我们大多数人把生活认为是理所当然的。我们知道，某一天我们一定会死，但通常我们把那天想象在遥远的将来。当我们心宽体健时，死亡几乎是不可想象的，我们很少想到它。时日在无穷的展望中延展着，于是我们干着琐碎的事情，几乎意识不到我们对生活的倦怠态度。
恐怕，同样的懒散也成为利用我们所有的本能和感觉的特点。只有聋子才珍惜听力，唯有瞎子才体会到能看见事物的种种幸福，这种结论特别适合于那些在成年阶段失去视力和听力的人们，而那些从没有遭受视觉或听觉损伤之苦的人却很少充分利用这些天赐的官能。他们模模糊糊地眼观八方，耳听各音，毫无重点，不会鉴赏，还是那相同的老话，对我们所有的官能不知珍惜，直至失去它，对我们的健康意识不到，直至生病时。
我常常想，如果每个人在他成年的早期有一段时间致瞎致聋，那会是一种幸事，黑暗会使他更珍惜视力，寂静会教导他享受声音。
12、Companionship of Books 以书为伴（节选）
A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.
A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness; amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.
Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ?Love me, love my dog.‖ But there is more wisdom in this:‖ Love me, love my book.‖ The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think,
feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They live in him together, and he in them.
A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of a man‘s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters.
Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author‘s minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is really good.
Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see the as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.
The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which on still listens.
译文：
以书为伴
通常看一个读些什么书就可知道他的为人，就像看他同什么人交往就可知道他的为人一样，因为有人以人为伴，也有人以书为伴。无论是书友还是朋友，我们都应该以最好的为伴。
好书就像是你最好的朋友。它始终不渝，过去如此，现在如此，将来也永远不变。它是最有耐心，最令人愉悦的伴侣。在我们穷愁潦倒，临危遭难时，它也不会抛弃我们，对我们总是一如既往地亲切。在我们年轻时，好书陶冶我们的性情，增长我们的知识；到我们年老时，它又给我们以慰藉和勉励。
人们常常因为喜欢同一本书而结为知已，就像有时两个人因为敬慕同一个人而成为朋友一样。有句古谚说道：―爱屋及屋。‖其实―爱我及书‖这句话蕴涵更多的哲理。书是更为真诚而高尚的情谊纽带。人们可以通过共同喜爱的作家沟通思想，交流感情，彼此息息相通，并与自己喜欢的作家思想相通，情感相融。
好书常如最精美的宝器，珍藏着人生的思想的精华，因为人生的境界主要就在于其思想的境界。因此，最好的书是金玉良言和崇高思想的宝库，这些良言和思想若铭记于心并多加珍视，就会成为我们忠实的伴侣和永恒的慰藉。
书籍具有不朽的本质，是为人类努力创造的最为持久的成果。寺庙会倒坍，神像会朽烂，而书却经久长存。对于伟大的思想来说，时间是无关紧要的。多年前初次闪现于作者脑海的伟大思想今日依然清新如故。时间惟一的作用是淘汰不好的作品，因为只有真正的佳作才能经世长存。
书籍介绍我们与最优秀的人为伍，使我们置身于历代伟人巨匠之间，如闻其声，如观其行，如见其人，同他们情感交融，悲喜与共，感同身受。我们觉得自己仿佛在作者所描绘的舞台上和他们一起粉墨登场。
即使在人世间，伟大杰出的人物也永生不来。他们的精神被载入书册，传于四海。书是人生至今仍在聆听的智慧之声，永远充满着活力。
13：If I Rest,I Rust 如果我休息，我就会生锈
The significant inscription found on an old key---―If I rest, I rust‖---would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.
Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture---every department of human endeavor.
Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.
Labor vanquishes all---not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.
如果我休息，我就会生锈
在一把旧钥匙上发现了一则意义深远的铭文——如果我休息，我就会生锈。对于那些懒散而烦恼的人来说，这将是至理名言。甚至最为勤勉的人也以此作为警示：如果一个人有才能而不用，就像废弃钥匙上的铁一样，这些才能就会很快生锈，并最终无法完成安排给自己的工
作。
有些人想取得伟人所获得并保持的成就，他们就必须不断运用自身才能，以便开启知识的大门，即那些通往人类努力探求的各个领域的大门，这些领域包括各种职业：科学，艺术，文学，农业等。
勤奋使开启成功宝库的钥匙保持光亮。如果休?米勒在采石场劳作一天后，晚上的时光用来休息消遣的话，他就不会成为名垂青史的地质学家。著名数学家爱德蒙?斯通如果闲暇时无所事事，就不会出版数学词典，也不会发现开启数学之门的钥匙。如果苏格兰青年弗格森在山坡上放羊时，让他那思维活跃的大脑处于休息状态，而不是借助一串珠子计算星星的位置，他就不会成为著名的天文学家。
劳动征服一切。这里所指的劳动不是断断续续的，间歇性的或方向偏差的劳动，而是坚定的，不懈的，方向正确的每日劳动。正如要想拥有自由就要时刻保持警惕一样，要想取得伟大的，持久的成功，就必须坚持不懈地努力。
14、Ambition
It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world: with out demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions. Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.
Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be!
There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and events now not all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on one‘s own. But even the most cynical secret ly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity.
We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live:
courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.
抱负
一个缺乏抱负的世界将会怎样，这不难想象。或许，这将是一个更为友善的世界：没有渴求，没有磨擦，没有失望。人们将有时间进行反思。他们所从事的工作将不是为了他们自身，而是为了整个集体。竞争永远不会介入；冲突将被消除。人们的紧张关系将成为过往云烟。创造的重压将得以终结。艺术将不再惹人费神，其功能将纯粹为了庆典。人的寿命将会更长，因为由激烈拼争引起的心脏病和中风所导致的死亡将越来越少。焦虑将会消失。时光流逝，抱负却早已远离人心。
啊，长此以往人生将变得多么乏味无聊！
有一种盛行的观点认为，成功是一种神话，因此抱负亦属虚幻。这是不是说实际上并不丰在成功？成就本身就是一场空？与诸多运动和事件的力量相比，男男女女的努力显得微不足？显然，并非所有的成功都值得景仰，也并非所有的抱负都值得追求。对值得和不值得的选择，一个人自然而然很快就能学会。但即使是最为愤世嫉俗的人暗地里也承认，成功确实存在，成就的意义举足轻重，而把世上男男女女的所作所为说成是徒劳无功才是真正的无稽之谈。认为成功不存在的观点很可能造成混乱。这种观点的本意是一笔勾销所有提高能力的动机，求取业绩的兴趣和对子孙后代的关注。
我们无法选择出生，无法选择父母，无法选择出生的历史时期与国家，或是成长的周遭环境。我们大多数人都无法选择死亡，无法选择死亡的时间或条件。但是在这些无法选择之中，我们的确可以选择自己的生活方式：是勇敢无畏还是胆小怯懦，是光明磊落还是厚颜无耻，是目标坚定还是随波逐流。我们决定生活中哪些至关重要，哪些微不足道。我们决定，用以显示我们自身重要性的，不是我们做了什么，就是我们拒绝做些什么。但是不论世界对我们所做的选择和决定有多么漠不关心，这些选择和决定终究是我们自己做出的。我们决定，我们选择。而当我们决定和选择时，我们的生活便得以形成。最终构筑我们命运的就是抱负之所在。
15、What I Have Lived For
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy---ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next,
because it relieves loneliness---that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what---at last---I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always it brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
我为何而生
我的一生被三种简单却又无比强烈的激情所控制：对爱的渴望，对知识的探索和对人类苦难难以抑制的屿。这些激情像狂风，把我恣情吹向四方，掠过苦痛的大海，迫使我濒临绝望的边缘。
我寻求爱，首先因为它使我心为之着迷，这种难以名状的美妙迷醉使我愿意用所有的余生去换取哪怕几个小时这样的幸福。我寻求爱，还因为它能缓解我心理上的孤独中，我感觉心灵的战栗，仿如站在世界的边缘而面前是冰冷，无底的死亡深渊。我寻求爱，因为在我所目睹的结合中，我仿佛看到了圣贤与诗人们所向往的天堂之景。这就是我所寻找的，虽然对人的一生而言似乎有些遥不可及，但至少是我用尽一生所领悟到的。
我用同样的激情去寻求知识。我希望能理解人类的心灵，希望能够知道群星闪烁的缘由。我试图领悟毕达哥拉斯所景仰的―数即万物‖的思想。我已经悟出了其中的一点点道理，尽管并不是很多。
爱和知识，用它们的力量把人引向天堂。但是同情却总把人又拽回到尘世中来。痛苦的呼喊声回荡在我的内心。饥饿的孩子，受压迫的难民，贫穷和痛苦的世界，都是对人类所憧憬的美好生活的无情嘲弄。我渴望能够减少邪恶，但是我无能为力，我也难逃其折磨。
这就是我的一生。我已经找到它的价值。而且如果有机会，我很愿意能再活它一次。
16、When Love Beckons You
When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to our roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
But if, in your fear, you would seek only love‘s peace and love‘s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love‘s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but it self and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love‘s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a payer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
爱的召唤
当爱召唤你时，请追随她，尽管爱的道路艰难险峻。当爱的羽翼拥抱你时，请顺从她，尽管隐藏在其羽翼之下的剑可能会伤到你。当爱向你诉说时，请相信她，尽管她的声音可能打破你的梦想，就如同北风吹落花园里所有的花瓣。
爱会给你戴上桂冠，也会折磨你。爱会助你成长，也会给你修枝。爱会上升到枝头，抚爱你在阳光下颤动力的嫩枝，也会下潜至根部，撼动力你紧抓泥土的根基。
但是，如果你在恐惧之中只想寻求爱的平和与快乐，那你就最好掩盖真实的自我，避开爱的考验，进入不分季节的世界，在那里你将欢笑，但并非开怀大笑，你将哭泣，但并非尽情地哭。爱只将自己付出，也只得到自己。爱一无所有，也不会为谁所有，因为爱本身就已自足。
爱除了实现自我别无他求。但是如果你爱而又不得不有所求，那就请期望：
将自己融化并像奔流的溪水一般向夜晚吟唱自己优美的曲调。
明了过多的温柔所带来的苦痛。
被自己对爱的理解所伤害；
并情愿快乐地悲伤。
在黎明带着轻快的心醒来并感谢又一个有家的日子；
在黄昏怀着感恩之心回家；
然后为内心所爱之人祈祷，吟唱赞美之歌，并带着祷告和歌声入眠。
17、The Road to Success
It is well that young men should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate positions. Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a serious responsibility thrust upon them at the very threshold of their career. They were introduced to the broom, and spent the first hours of their business lives sweeping out the office. I notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, and our young men unfortunately miss that salutary branch of business education. But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. It does not hurt the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary.
I was one of those sweepers myself.
Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is ―aim high‖. I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm. Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive. Say to yourself, ―My place is at the top.‖ Be king in your dreams.
And here is the prime condition of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.
The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here there, and everywhere. ―Don‘t put all your eggs in one basket.‖ is all wrong. I tell you to ―put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.‖ Look round you and take notice, men who do that not often fail. It is easy to watch and carry the one basket. It is trying to carry too many baskets that breaks most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. One fault of the American businessman is lack of concentration.
To summarize what I have said: aim for the highest; never enter a bar room; do not touch liquor, or if at all only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; make the firm‘s interest yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket; expenditure always within revenue; lastly, be not impatient, for as Emerson says, ―no one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourselves.‖
成功之道
年轻人创业之初，应该从最底层干起，这是件好事。匹兹保有很多商业巨头，在他们创业之初，都肩负过―重任‖：他们以扫帚相伴，以打扫办公室的方式度过了他们商业生涯中最初的时光。我注意到我们现在办公室里都有工友，于是年轻人就不幸错过了商业教育中这个有益的环节。如果碰巧哪天上午专职扫地的工友没有来，某个具有未来合伙人气质的年轻人会毫不犹豫地试着拿起扫帚。在必要时新来的员工扫扫地也无妨，不会因为而有什么损失。我自己就曾经扫过地。
假如你已经被录用，并且有了一个良好的开端，我对你的建议是：要志存高远。一个年轻人，如果不把自己想象成一家大公司未来的老板或者是合伙人，那我会对他不屑一顾。不论职位有多高，你的内心都不要满足于做一个总管，领班或者总经理。要对自己说：我要迈向顶尖！要做就做你梦想中的国王！
成功的首要条件和最大秘诀就是：把你的精力，思想和资本全都集中在你正从事的事业上。一旦开始从事某种职业，就要下定决心在那一领域闯出一片天地来；做这一行的领导人物，采纳每一点改进之心，采用最优良的设备，对专业知识熟稔于心。
一些公司的失败就在于他们分散了资金，因为这就意味着分散了他们的精力。他们向这方面投资，又向那方面投资；在这里投资，在那里投资，到处都投资。―不要把所有的鸡蛋放在一个篮子里‖的说法大错特错。我要对你说：―把所有的鸡蛋都放在一个篮子里，然后小心地看好那个篮子。‖看看你周围，你会注意到：这么做的人其实很少失败。看管和携带一个篮子并不太难。人们总是试图提很多篮子，所以才打破这个国家的大部分鸡蛋。提三个篮子的人，必须把一个顶在头上，而这个篮子很可能倒下来，把他自己绊倒。美国商人的一个缺点就是不够专注。
把我的话归纳一下：要志存高远；不要出入酒吧；要滴酒不沾，或要喝也只在用餐时喝少许；不要做投机买卖；不要寅吃卯粮；要把公司的利益当作自己的利益；取消订货的目的永远是
为了挽救货主；要专注；要把所有的鸡蛋放在一个篮子里，然后小心地看好它；要量入为出；最后，要有耐心，正如爱默生所言，―谁都无法阻止你最终成功，除非你自己承认自己失败。‖
18、On Meeting the Celebrated
I have always wondered at the passion many people have to meet the celebrated. The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account. The celebrated develop a technique to deal with the persons they come across. They show the world a mask, often an impressive on, but take care to conceal their real selves. They play the part that is expected from them, and with practice learn to play it very well, but you are stupid if you think that this public performance of theirs corresponds with the man within.
I have been attached, deeply attached, to a few people; but I have been interested in men in general not for their own sakes, but for the sake of my work. I have not, as Kant enjoined, regarded each man as an end in himself, but as material that might be useful to me as a writer. I have been more concerned with the obscure than with the famous. They are more often themselves. They have had no need to create a figure to protect themselves from the world or to impress it. Their idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited circle of their activity, and since they have never been in the public eye it has never occurred to them that they have anything to conceal. They display their oddities because it has never struck them that they are odd. And after all it is with the common run of men that we writers have to deal; kings, dictators, commercial magnates are from our point of view very unsatisfactory. To write about them is a venture that has often tempted writers, but the failure that has attended their efforts shows that such beings are too exceptional to form a proper ground for a work of art. They cannot be made real. The ordinary is the writer‘s richer field. Its unexpectedness, its singularity, its infinite variety afford unending material. The great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you. For my part I would much sooner spend a month on a desert island with a veterinary surgeon than with a prime minister.
论见名人
许多人热衷于见名人，我始终不得其解。在朋友面前吹嘘自己认识某某名人，同此而来的声望只能证明自己的微不足道。名人个个练就了一套处世高招，无论遇上谁，都能应付自如。他们给世人展现的是一副面具，常常是美好难忘的面具，但他们会小心翼翼地掩盖自己的真相。他们扮演的是大家期待的角色，演得多了，最后都能演得惟妙惟肖。如果你还以为他们在公众面前的表演就是他们的真实自我，那就你傻了。
我自己就喜欢一些人，非常喜欢他们。但我对人感兴趣一般不是因为他们自身的缘故，而是出于我工作需求。正如康德劝告的那样，我从来没有把认识某人作为目的，而是将其当作对一个作家有用的创作素材。比之名流显士，我更加关注无名小卒。他们常常显得较为自然真实，他们无须再创造另一个人物形象，用他来保护自己不受世人干扰，或者用他来感动世人。
他们的社交圈子有限，自己的种种癖性也就越有可能得到滋长。因为他们从来没有引起公众的关注，也就从来没有想到过要隐瞒什么。他们会表露他们古怪的一面，因为他们从来就没有觉得有何古怪。总之，作家要写的是普通人。在我们看来，国王，独裁者和商界大亨等都是不符合条件的。去撰写这些人物经常是作家们难以抗拒的冒险之举，可为此付出的努力不免以失败告终，这说明这些人物都过于特殊，无法成为一件艺术作品的创作根基，作家也不可能把他们写得真真切切。老百姓才是作家的创作沃土，他们或变幻无常，或难觅其二，各式人物应有尽有，这些都给作家提供了无限的创作素材。大人物经常是千人一面，小人物身上才有一组组矛盾元素，是取之不尽的创作源泉，让你惊喜不断。就我而言，如果在孤岛上度过一个月，我宁愿和一名兽医相守，也不愿同一位首相做伴。
19、The 50-Percent Theory of Life
I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they re worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.
Let‘s benchmark the parameters: yes, I will die. I‘ve dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale.
Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person; having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son‘s baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he‘s swimming wi th the dogs, discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos.
But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50-percent theory.
One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed.
I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal---the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioned died; the well went dry; the marriage ended; the job lost; the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tune---music I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits.
Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn‘t last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50-percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals‘ recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest.
For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed
经典英语美文欣赏80篇(适用于成人)
经典英语美文欣赏80篇（适用于成人） 英语美文欣赏80篇 01-The Love of Beauty 英语美文欣赏80篇 02-The Happy Door 英语美文欣赏80篇 03-Born to Win 英语美文欣赏80篇 04-Work and Pleasure 英语美文欣赏80篇 05-Mirror,Mirror-What do I See 英语美文欣赏80篇 06-On Motes and Beams 英语美文欣赏80篇 07-An October Sunrise 英语美文欣赏80篇 08-To be or not to be 英语美文欣赏80篇 09-Gettysburg address 英语美文欣赏80篇10-First Inaugural Address
英语美文欣赏80篇11-American black bears 英语美文欣赏80篇 12-Coal-fired power plants 英语美文欣赏80篇 13-Statistics 英语美文欣赏80篇 14-Obtaining Fresh water from icebergs 英语美文欣赏80篇 15-The source of Energy 英语美文欣赏80篇 16-Vision 英语美文欣赏80篇 17-Folk Cultures 英语美文欣赏80篇 18-Bacteria 英语美文欣赏80篇 19-Sleep 英语美文欣赏80篇 20-Cells and Temperature 英语美文欣赏80篇21-Youth 英语美文欣赏80篇 22-Three Days to See 英语美文欣赏80篇 23-Companionship of Books 英语美文欣赏80篇24-If I Rest,I Rust 英语美文欣赏80篇 25-Ambition 英语美文欣赏80篇 26-What I have Lived for 英语美文欣赏80篇 27-When Love Beckons You 英语美文欣赏80篇 28-The Road to Success
散文诗名篇赏析《Youth-青春》中英文
经典英语名篇文章：青春 作者：Samuel Ullman 青春不是年华，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志、宏伟的想象、炽热的感情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。 经典英语文章《青春》背后的故事： 太平洋战争打得正酣之时，麦克阿瑟将军常常从繁忙中抬起头，注视着挂在墙上的镜框，镜框里是篇文章，名为《青春》。这篇文章一直伴随着他，也跟着他到了日本。后来，日本人在东京的美军总部发现了它，《青春》便开始在日本流传。 一位资深的日本问题观察家说，在日本实业界，只要有成就者，没有哪一个不熟知不应用这篇美文的，就连松下电器的创始人松下幸之助几十年来也把《青春》当作他的座右铭。 还有这么一件趣事，足以证明《青春》在日本的魅力。一天，美国影片销售协会主席罗森菲尔德参加日本实业界的聚会，晚宴之前的谈话，他随意说了一句：“《青春》的作者，便是我的祖父。”在座的各位实业界领袖大为惊讶，其中有一位一边激动地说“我一直随身带着它呢”，一边从口袋里掏出了《青春》。 Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep spring of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exits in a man of 60, more than a boy of 20.nobody grows merely by the number of years; we grow old by deserting our ideas. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust1 bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust. Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the 青春不是年华，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志、宏伟的想象、炽热的感情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。 青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进取压倒苟安，如此锐气，二十后生有之，六旬男子则更多见。年年有加，并非垂老；理想丢弃，方堕暮年。 岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓唐必至灵魂。烦忧、惶恐、丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。 无论年届花甲，抑或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆
完整20篇初中英语小短文带翻译
1 Dogs People often say that a dog is man's best friend. Over thousands of years, man has taught his dogs to do many kinds of work besides guarding the home. For example, sheepdogs are famous for their ability to control a flock of hundreds of sheep. Dogs have been used to aid disabled people for centuries. A guide dog can lead its blind owner. Nowadays, dogs can be taught to turn on light switches, open refrigerator doors and dial the telephone for their disabled owners. For the majority of people, however, dogs are simply pets and friends for both young and old members of the family. guard 看守,看护sheepdog 牧羊犬flock 群aid 帮助 disabled 残疾人century 世纪guide dog 导盲犬dial 拨majority 大多数 狗 人们总是说狗是人类最好的朋友.几千年来,除了看家外,人类还教会了狗去做许多其他的事,例如,牧羊犬就因其可以控制数百只羊的羊群而出名. 狗用来帮助残疾人已有好几个世纪了.导盲犬可以为盲主人引路.现在,人们还教狗为残疾主人打 开电灯、开冰箱和拨电话.然而,对于大多数人来说,狗只是家里老人和孩子们的宠物和朋友. 2 Detective Work A bank robber stole a lot of money. He was caught and sent to prison, but the money was never found. When he came out of prison, they watched him to see what he would do. Here is the detective, reporting to the inspector. Yes, sir, I found Johnny . I followed him all around the town, but frankly, I couldn't make anything out of what he bought. Here's the list. shirt , heavy crowbar, box of chocolates , shovel, heavy hammer, bunch of flowers .The inspector said, Good. That helps me a lot. Do you remember how we watched him helping his neighbor, old Mrs. Judson to cover her backyard with cement? detective 侦探的侦探robber 强盗,盗贼prison 监狱 inspector 检察官frankly 坦白地,真诚地crowbar 铁撬,撬棒 shovel 铲,铁铲hammer 铁锤,锤子backyard 后院cement 水泥 侦探工作 一个盗贼从银行偷了很多钱.他被抓住送到监狱,但是钱没找到. 我发现了,先生,是的“侦探正向检察官报告：,这不.看他会做什么,他被监视,当他从监狱出来时．强尼?阿米塔基,我跟着他转遍了全镇,但坦白说,我不能从他买的东西中推断出什么.这里是清单.”衬衫、大铁撬、一盒巧克力铁铲、大铁锤、一束花. 检察官说：“好,这对我很有帮助.你还记得我们看到他是怎么帮他的邻居,贾德森老太太用水泥铺院子的吗?” 3 What is Time? （Nursery Rhyme） Time is grain for peasants. Time is wealth for workers.
优秀英语美文摘抄带翻译
优秀英语美文摘抄带翻译 【导语】优美的文字于细微处传达出美感,并浸润着学生的心灵。通过英语美文,学生不仅能够感受语言之美,领悟语言之用,还能产生学习语言的兴趣。以下是由分享优秀英语美文摘抄带翻译，希望可以帮助大家! 【篇一】优秀英语美文摘抄带翻译 We are not born with courage, but neither are we born with fear. Maybe some of our fears are brought on by your own experiences, by what someone has told you, by what you’ve read in the papers. Some fears are valid, like walking alone in a bad part of town at two o’clock in the morning. But once you learn to avoid that situation, you won’t need to live in fear of it. 我们的勇气并不是与生俱来的，我们的恐惧也不是。也许有些恐惧来自你的亲身经历，别人告诉你的故事，或你在报纸上读到的东西。有些恐惧可以理解，例如在凌晨两点独自走在城里不安全的地段。但是一旦你学会避免那种情况，你就不必生活在恐惧之中。 Fears, even the most basic ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear can destroy fortunes. Fear can destroy relationships. Fear, if left unchecked, can destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurking inside us.
关于经典英语美文摘抄
关于经典英语美文摘抄 【篇一】关于经典英语美文：美国革命的历史意义 The Historical Significance of American Revolution The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actions so complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent events covering a number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement; yet the historical process which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new way of life but of nationalism as a new way of life. The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth century, in which modern England became conscious of itself, and the awakening of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. It may seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only in the North American colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation. Here, in the popular rising against a "tyrannical" government, the fruits were more than the securing of a freer constitution. They included the growth of a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of common descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or dynasty. With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world. 美国革命的历史意义
英语小短文(带翻译)
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what's next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young. 无论是60岁还是16岁，你需要保持永不衰竭的好奇心、永不熄灭的孩提般求知的渴望和的欢乐与热情。在你我的心底，有一座无线电台，它能在多长里接收到人间万物传递来的、、欢乐、鼓舞和力量的信息，你就会年轻多长时间。 An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. 应当像河流，开始是涓涓细流，受两岸的限制而十分狭窄，尔后奔腾咆哮，翻过危岩，飞越瀑布，河面渐渐开阔，河岸也随之向两边隐去，最后水流平缓，森森无际，汇入大海之中，个人就这样地消失了。 Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity,of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty.Nobody grows old merely by a number of years.We grow old by deserting our ideals. 意味着战胜懦弱的那股大丈夫气概和摈弃安逸的那种冒险精神。往往一个60岁的老者比一个20岁的青年更多一点这种劲头。人老不仅仅是岁月流逝所致，更主要的是不思进取的结果。 Years may wrinkle the skin,but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust. 光阴可以在颜面上留下印记，而热情之火的熄灭则在上刻下皱纹。烦恼、恐惧、会扭曲人的灵魂，并将青春化为灰烬。 爱情的世界很大也很小 The love world is big, which can hold hundreds of disappointments; the love world is small which is crowded even with three people inside. 原来的世界很大，大到可以装下上百种委屈； 原来爱情的世界很小，小到三个人就挤到窒息。 To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world. 对于世界而言，你是一个人；但是对于某个人，你是他的整个世界。 Don’t waste your time on a man/woman, who isn’t willing to waste their time on you. 不要为那些不愿在你身上花费的人而浪费你的时间。
关于经典英语美文摘抄
关于经典英语美文摘抄 【导语】在英语教学中,开展经典美文教学不仅能提高学生的文学水平,而且能提高学生的语文素养,对培养学生的语言素养和人文素养具有极大益处,更能丰富学生的精神世界,磨炼学生的意志。本文是由小编整理的关于经典英语美文，希望对大家有帮助! 【篇一】关于经典英语美文：美国革命的历史意义 The Historical Significance of American Revolution The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actions so complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent events covering a number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement; yet the historical process which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new way of life but of nationalism as a new way of life. The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth century, in which modern England became conscious of itself, and the awakening of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. It may seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only in the North American colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation. Here, in the popular rising against a "tyrannical" government, the fruits were more than the securing of a freer constitution. They included the growth of a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of common descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or dynasty. With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world.
关于经典英语美文带翻译摘抄
关于经典英语美文带翻译摘抄 导读：我根据大家的需要整理了一份关于《关于经典英语美文带翻译摘抄》的内容，具体内容：情景美文在思品教学中加以应用,能更有效地实现情感态度价值观目标。我精心收集了关于经典英语美文带翻译，供大家欣赏学习!关于经典英语美文带翻译：勇气The courag... 情景美文在思品教学中加以应用,能更有效地实现情感态度价值观目标。我精心收集了关于经典英语美文带翻译，供大家欣赏学习! 关于经典英语美文带翻译：勇气 The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no lessa magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences，in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures and that is the basis of all human morality. To be courageous...requires no exceptional qualifications，no magic formula，no special combination of time，place and circumstance.It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all. Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage.In whatever arena of life one may meet the challengeof courage，whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience，the loss of his friends，his fortune，his
中考英语作文50篇带翻译.doc
中考英语作文50篇带翻译
中考英语作文50篇（带翻译） 1、The Person I Like Best 我最喜欢的人 I have many friends，but I like Li Lei best. He is a good student. He always helps others. He likes reading books, so he knows many things. He is very helpful to us. He often helps me with my study. We are good friends. We often play games and do sports together. We enjoy ourselves every day. Li Lei is the person I like best. 我有很多朋友, 但我最喜欢李磊。他是个好学生。他总是帮助别人，他喜欢读书，所以他知道很多东西。他很乐于帮助我们。他经常帮助我学习。我们很好朋友们。我们经常一起玩游戏，一起做运动。我们每天都玩得开心。李磊是我最喜欢的人。 2、My Good Friend 我的好朋友 Tom is my good friend. He is 16 years old. He comes from America. He lives with his parents in China. He likes playing football, singing and drawing. He is good at English, but his Chinese isn’t good. He often helps me with my English, and I help him with his Chinese. We go to play football every Sunday. We always feel happy when we get together. Tom是我的好朋友。他16岁。他来自美国。他与父母一起生活在中国。他喜欢踢足球、唱歌和画画。他英语很好，但他的中文不好。他
英语美文(带翻译)
Always will I seek the seed of triumph in every adversity 在困境中寻找成功的希望 1．There is no better school than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve my performance next time. Never again will I contribute to my downfall by refusing to face the truth and learn from my past mistakes. Because I know: gems cannot shine without polish, and I cannot perfect myself without hardship. 2．Now I know that there are no times in life when opportunity, the chance to be and do, gathers so richly about my soul as when it has to suffer cruel adversity. Then everything depends on whether I raise my head or lower it in seeking help. Whenever I am struck down, in the future, by any terrible defeat, I will always inquire of myself, after the first pain has passed how I can turn that adversity into good. What a great opportunity that moment might present… to take the bitter root I am holding and transform it into a fragrant garden of flowers. 3．Always will I seek the seed of triumph in every adversity. 1．逆境是一所最好的学校每一次打击、每一次损失。都蕴含着成功的萌芽。都教会我在下一次有更出色的表现。我再也不会逃避现实，也不会拒绝从以往的错误中获取经验，我不再因此促成自己的失败。因为我我知道，宝玉不经磨砺就不能发光，没有磨练，我也不完善自我。 2．现在我知道，灵魂倍受煎熬的时刻，也正是生命中最多选择与机会的时刻。任何事情的成败取决于我在寻求帮助时是抬起头还是低下头。无论何时，当我被可怕的失败击倒，在最初的阵痛过去之后，我都要想方设法将苦难变成好事。伟大的机遇就在这一刻闪现——这苦涩的根本必将迎来满园芬芳！ 3．我将一直在困境中寻找成功希望。 Hold Fast to Dreams 紧紧抓住梦想 1．We all have dreams. We all want to believe deep down in our souls that we have a special gift, that we can make a difference, that we can touch others in a special way, and that we can make the world a better place. 2．At one time in our lives, we all had a vision for the quality of life that we desire and deserve. Yet, for many of us, those dreams have become so shrouded in the frustrations and routines of daily life that we no longer even make an effort to accomplish them. For far too many, the dream has dissipated and with it, so has the will to shape our destinies. Many have lost that sense of certainty that creates the winner’s edge.
经典英语美文欣赏50篇关于爱家的英语美文欣赏
经典英语美文欣赏50篇关于爱家的英语美文欣赏 不要太注意家庭的外观及形式，最主要的，是要注重家庭里特有的，充满了爱、温暖与明朗的气氛。了关于爱家的英语美文，欢迎阅读! Home is a warm noun, because it means a place full filled with love and support. Home is not just a place where we live in, but a place where families support each other and show their love to others. When we have something happy, we first want to bring them home and share the happinesswith families. On the contrast, if we get into trouble, home is the first place where we look for support and fort. In short, home is not just a house we live in; moreover, it's our home of spirit. I was panic a while absolute being, stand Be frightenning into inaction simultaneously, stare greatly eyes to looking at father and mother, the in the mind worries very much they will blame me.Just at I daze of time, father said a words:"Unimportant of, ground(from year to year) and peaceful!"
英语美文欣赏带翻译
Friends or 'Enemies?' When I was younger, my Dad used to tell me: "Boys don't want to be your friend." He then left the rest to my imagination. At the time, I didn't agree. I thought: I can crack a good joke, I know how to shoot a hoop, and I'm a cheerful person (but not in an annoying way). What kind of boy wouldn't want to be around that kind of girl? Turns out, my Dad was right. Not to be all "Samantha Brick" about it, but in my experience, single, heterosexual men aren't actively looking for an exclusively platonic relationship with a woman they find sexually attractive. This of course is not a revolutionary concept. In fact, it seems pretty natural to me. Now, I will be the first to say that it is really and truly the most wonderful thing in the world if the attraction is mutual. But the Powers That Be seem to like to play these complicated little mating games with humans where the guy we want to re-enact scenes from 9? Weeks with sees our attractiveness level as akin to that of a discarded dishcloth, and the most physical we could see ourselves being with the guy who actually likes us is a game of ping pong over an especially long table. All of which means that someone usually ends up getting rejected. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I have struggled with the scenario where I am not interested in a man romantically, but I want to keep him as a friend because he is funny and I enjoy his company, or he has shown himself to be that rare specimen known as "a nice, genuine person, " or he simply doesn't mention his therapist in every other sentence. Rather than string him along and give him hope, I feel compelled to somehow communicate to him sooner rather than later that we'll just be staying friends, nothing more. Otherwise, I think I am being unfair to him. Why should he waste his romantic stamina on me when there are loads of other single women out there who might fall instantly in love with him? The thing is, it can sometimes be tricky to reject a man and keep him as a friend. If the operation is not executed carefully, you may end up creating a "menemy." It requires a certain amount of skill to be able to turn down a man's sexual advances or romantic gestures and then get him to agree to meet you for blueberry pancakes the following weekend and chat about the latest Woody Allen film. Some men aren't satisfied with just that. I'm not clear why. What's so bad about friendship? Everyone needs buddies. But I've seen men react poorly or simply fall off the face of the earth. I get it -- their feelings are hurt. None of us likes getting rejected. But in my experience, some men find it especially soul-crushing. I am only bringing all of this up because I recently had to go through this scenario again. I had spent some time cultivating a friendship with a man who, in my defense, I thought was gay. So I didn't see the harm in him buying me the occasional falafel, or accepting an invitation to see a film with him. Isn't that what friends are for? But a mutual friend shed light on his sexual orientation (straight) and suggested that his intentions -- and attentions -- weren't platonic. He had never "made the moves" but now it was all crystal clear -- that explains the way he had looked at me that time the tahini sauce dribbled down my chin! Since he had clearly been too timid to express his feelings, I thought I would be clever this time and subtly mention the dates I had been going on, focusing on the one guy I was kind of keen on, so that he would know that I was "unavailable" for heavy petting and those sorts of activities, but that I was available for things like roller skating, falafel-eating and shooting the breeze. Doesn't that sound nice? That way, he would known not to try to lean in for a kiss, and I wouldn't have to pull the Stevie Wonder dance and dodge him went he went for it. It was like pre-rejection, yet I was sparing his feelings because he didn't even have to put himself out there! I really thought I was being brilliant. It backfired, of course. Said man ended up sending me an email rant accusing me of being insensitive by talking about other men when he had "feelings for me." As if I am psychic, by the way, just because I am a woman! How was I supposed to know that? I think in his mind we were dating. In my mind, he was my new gay BFF. In the end, I got mad at him for getting mad at me, and now the friendship has ended. And I have created yet another "menemy." Look, I have also tried the direct thing: "I really like you, but only as a friend, " but you can only do that when the guy has made his intentions clear, and in my experience, they either cope okay (though rarely do I feel much enthusiasm for friendship after that), or they really don't cope well. I also tried the thing where you make them think they are rejecting you, but it gets quite confusing and only works if the guy isn't very sharp, and why would I -- or you -- be hanging out with someone not that sharp in the first place? As we all remember, Billy Crystal's character says men and women can't be friends in When Harry Met Sally because the sex stuff gets in the way. I do have single, male, heterosexual friends with whom I have an easy, non-romantic rapport, but I honestly don't know if they would walk away if I was sprawled naked on a bed calling out to them. I may not be everybody's cup of tea, but sometimes, I wonder if they wonder. And they may wonder if I wonder. If so, I hope they'll keep it to