The chess-board is the world:the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.
By Thomas Henry Huxley
参考译文
棋盘宛如世界:一个个棋子仿佛世间的种种现象:游戏规则就是我们所称的自然法则。竞争对手藏于暗处,不为我们所见。我们知晓,这位对手向来处事公平,正义凛然,极富耐心。然而,我们也明白,这位对手从不忽视任何错误,或者因为我们的无知而做出一丝让步,所以我们也必须为此付出代价。 2 American dream
To Americans, industriousness, thrift and ambition are possitive values. We encourage our children to be competitive, to get ahead, to make money, to acquire possassion. In games and in business alike, the aim is to win the game, the trorphy, the contract. We go in for laboursaving devices, gadgets, speed and shortcuts. We think every young couple should set up a home of their own. And we pity the couple who must share their home with their parent, let alone with other relatives. Actually, of course, not all Americans hold all these values. And those who do may hold other, and at times controdictary values that affect their ways of behaving. In the main, however,the collective expectation of our society is that these are desirable goals, and the individual, whatever his personal inclination, is under considerable pressure to conform. 参考译文:美国梦
对于我们美国人,勤劳、节俭和志气都是积极的价值观。我们鼓励孩子们进取、成功、赚钱、富有。在竞赛和商业活动中也是一样,我们追求的是赢取比赛、获得奖杯、拿到合同。我们致力于节省劳力的工具、速度和捷径。我们提倡所有的小两口都能靠自己的双手构建家园。我们为那些必须依靠父母或亲戚生活的夫妇感到遗憾!其实,并不是所有的美国人都拥有这样的价值观,甚至有些人或许会拥有相反的价值观,这样的价值观会影响他们的行为。不过,我们的社会的主流意识/期望还是这种积极的目标,不论个人的倾好如何,他的行为也是被规范在一定的范围之内的。
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3. 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。 4. Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter ofrosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, aquality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of theappetite for
adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder,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.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of
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pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die 青春
塞缪尔·厄尔曼
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,恢宏的想象,炙热的恋情;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,二十后生而有之,六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加,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,颓废必致灵魂。忧烦,惶恐,丧失自信,定使心灵扭曲,意气如灰。
无论年届花甲,拟或二八芳龄,心中皆有生命之欢乐,奇迹之诱惑,孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线,只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号,你就青春永驻,风华常存。
一旦天线下降,锐气便被冰雪覆盖,玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生,即使年方二十,实已垂垂老矣;然则只要树起天线,捕捉乐观信号,你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。
5. Frankness
You must study to be frank with the world:frankness is the child of honesty and courage. Say just what you mean to do, on every occasion. If a friend asks a favor, you should grant it, if it is
reasonable; if not, tell him plainly why you cannot. You would wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocation of any kind.
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one. The man who requires you to do so is dearly purchased at a sacrifice. Deal kindly but firmly with all your classmates. You will find it the policy which wears best. Above all, do not appear to others what you are not.
If you have any fault to find with any one, tell him, not others, of what you complain. There is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to do one thing before a man's face and another behind his back. We should say and do nothing to the injury of any one. It is not only a matter of principle, but also the path of peace and hornor.
By Robert E. Lee
参考译文
在世间必须学会以真诚示人:率真乃是诚实与勇敢之子。无论在何种场合,都应该道出自己
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的真实想法。如果朋友对你有所求,对于合情合理之请,应该欣然同意;不然,应该明明白白地告诉朋友拒绝的理由。任何模棱两可的话语将会让别人误解,也会使自己蒙受冤屈。
千万不要为了结交朋友或者挽留友情而做错一事。对你有这种要求的人也会付出沉重的代价。与同学真心相对,绝不背叛。你将发现这是最有效用的准则。总之,要以真实面目示人。
如果发现某人身有瑕疵,直接告诉他你的意见,而不是诉之他人。人前一套,背后又是一套,没有什么比这更加危机四伏。任何有损他人的言语或者事情我们都应该避免。这不仅是一种做人的原则,而且也是通向平和的人际关系、获得他人尊敬之道。
6 Hope is the thing with feathers
Hope\" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—
And sweetest — in the Gale— is heart—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little bird—
That kept so many warm—
I've heard it in the chilliest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of me.
------Emily Dickinson
希望是鸟儿
希望是鸟儿,
在人们心灵栖居,
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唱着无词的歌儿,
永无止息。
心灵是甜蜜的避风港
只有猛烈的风暴,
才能威胁希望,
这慰藉心灵的小鸟。
它歌唱在最寒冷的地方
最陌生的海洋
纵然身处绝境,
也不索取分毫。
----爱米莉·狄更生
7.The doer of Deeds
It is not the critic who counts,not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arens,whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;who stives valiantly;who errs,and comes short again and again;because there is not effort without error and shortcoming;but who does actually strive to do the deeds;who knows the great enthusiasms,the great devotions;who spends himself in a worthy cause,who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst,if he fails,at least fails whiledaring greatly,so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
真正令人尊敬的并非那些评论家和那些指出强者是如何跌倒,实干家本该做得更好的人。
荣誉属于那些亲临竞技场,满脸污泥,汗水和鲜血的人。他们不懈努力,他们曾犯过过错,并一再失败。因为付出即意味着犯错和失败。他们满怀激情地努力做事,执着不懈,将生命奉献于崇高的事业。他们为经过艰辛努力最终取得的伟大成就而自豪,如果失败,他们夜败的荣耀。因而,这样的人永远不应与那些不知道胜利,也从未失败过的冷淡而胆怯的灵魂相提并论。
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