《生而为赢》英文美文

生而为赢

Born to win

--新东方英语背诵美文30篇

目录：

·第一篇：Youth 青春

·第二篇： Three Days to See(Excerpts)假如给我三天光明（节选）

·第三篇：Companionship of Books 以书为伴（节选）

·第四篇：If I Rest, I Rust 如果我休息，我就会生锈

·第五篇：Ambition 抱负

·第六篇：What I have Lived for 我为何而生

·第七篇：When Love Beckons You 爱的召唤

·第八篇：The Road to Success 成功之道

·第九篇：On Meeting the Celebrated 论见名人

·第十篇：The 50-Percent Theory of Life 生活理论半对半

·第十一篇：What is Your Recovery Rate? 你的恢复速率是多少？

·第十二篇：Clear Your Mental Space 清理心灵的空间

·第十三篇：Be Happy 快乐

·第十四篇：The Goodness of life 生命的美好

·第十五篇：Facing the Enemies Within 直面内在的敌人

·第十六篇：Abundance is a Life Style 富足的生活方式

·第十七篇：Human Life a Poem 人生如诗

·第十八篇：Solitude 独处

·第十九篇：Giving Life Meaning 给生命以意义

·第二十篇：Relish the Moment 品位现在

·第二十一篇：The Love of Beauty 爱美

·第二十二篇：The Happy Door 快乐之门

·第二十三篇：Born to Win 生而为赢

·第二十四篇：Work and Pleasure 工作和娱乐

·第二十五篇：Mirror, Mirror--What do I see镜子,镜子,告诉我

·第二十六篇：On Motes and Beams 微尘与栋梁

·第二十七篇：An October Sunrise 十月的日出

·第二十八篇：To Be or Not to Be 生存还是毁灭

·第二十九篇：Gettysburg Address 葛底斯堡演说

·第三十篇：First Inaugural Address(Excerpts) 就职演讲（节选）

·第一篇：Youth 青春

Youth

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, a

vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

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 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 spirit back to dust.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders,

the unfailing appetite for 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, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so

long as you are young.

When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism

and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your

aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.

·第二篇： Three Days to See(Excerpts)假如给我三天光明（节选）

Three Days to See

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 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 gentleness, 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.

·第三篇：Companionship of Books 以书为伴（节选）

Companionship of Books

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.

·第四篇：If I Rest,I Rust 如果我休息，我就会生锈

If I Rest, I Rust

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.

·第五篇：Ambition 抱负

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 secretly 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.

·第六篇：What I have Lived for 我为何而生

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.

·第七篇：When Love Beckons You 爱的召唤

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.

·第八篇：The Road to Success 成功之道

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.”

·第九篇：On Meeting the Celebrated 论见名人

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.

·第十篇：The 50-Percent Theory of Life 生活理论半对半

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 with 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 pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared

the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed with corn---fat,

healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tip---while my

neighbors’ fields yielded only brown, empty husks.

Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent expectation,

and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that

flourishes during the drought.

·第十一篇：What is Your Recovery Rate? 你的恢复速率是多少？

What is Your Recovery Rate?

What is your recovery rate? How long does it take you to recover from actions

and behaviors that upset you? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? The longer it takes

you to recover, the more influence that incident has on your actions, and the less

able you are to perform to your personal best. In a nutshell, the longer it takes you

to recover, the weaker you are and the poorer your performance.

You are well aware that you need to exercise to keep the body fit and, no

doubt, accept that a reasonable measure of health is the speed in which your heart

and respiratory system recovers after exercise. Likewise the faster you let go of an

issue that upsets you, the faster you return to an equilibrium, the healthier you will

be. The best example of this behavior is found with professional sportspeople.

They know that the faster they can forget an incident or missd opportunity and get

on with the game, the better their performance. In fact, most measure the time it

takes them to overcome and forget an incident in a game and most reckon a

recovery rate of 30 seconds is too long!

Imagine yourself to be an actor in a play on the stage. Your aim is to play your

part to the best of your ability. You have been given a script and at the end of each

sentence is a ful stop. Each time you get to the end of the sentence you start a new

one and although the next sentence is related to the last it is not affected by it.

Your job is to deliver each sentence to the best of your ability.

Don’t live your life in the past! Learn to live in the present, to overcome the

past. Stop the past from influencing your daily life. Don’t allow thoughts of the

past to reduce your personal best. Stop the past from interfering with your life.

Learn to recover quickly.

Remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Reflect on your recovery rate each day.

Every day before you go to bed, look at your progress. Don’t lie in bed saying to

you, “I did that wrong.” “I should have done better there.” No. look at your day

and note when you made an effort to place a full stop after an incident. This is a

success. You are taking control of your life. Remember this is a step by step process.

This is not a make-over. You are undertaking real change here. Your aim: reduce

the time spent in recovery.

The way forward?

Live in the present. Not in the precedent.

·第十二篇：Clear Your Mental Space 清理心灵的空间

Clear Your Mental Space

Think about the last time you felt a negative emotion---like stress, anger, or

frustration. What was going through your mind as you were going through that

negativity? Was your mind cluttered with thoughts? Or was it paralyzed, unable to

think?

The next time you find yourself in the middle of a very stressful time, or you

feel angry or frustrated, stop. Yes, that’s right, stop. Whatever you’re doing, stop

and sit for one minute. While you’re sitting there, completely immerse yourself in

the negative emotion.

Allow that emotion to consume you. Allow yourself one minute to truly feel

that emotion. Don’t cheat yourself here. Take the entire minute---but only one

minute---to do nothing else but feel that emotion.

When the minute is over, ask yourself, “Am I wiling to keep holding on to this

negative emotion as I go through the rest of the day?”

Once you’ve allowed yourself to be totally immersed in the emotion and

really fell it, you will be surprised to find that the emotion clears rather quickly.

If you feel you need to hold on to the emotion for a little longer, that is OK.

Allow yourself another minute to feel the emotion.

When you feel you’ve had enough of the emotion, ask yourself if you’re

willing to carry that negativity with you for the rest of the day. If not, take a deep

breath. As you exhale, release all that negativity with your breath.

This exercise seems simple---almost too simple. But, it is very effective. By

allowing that negative emotion the space to be truly felt, you are dealing with the

emotion rather than stuffing it down and trying not to feel it. You are actually

taking away the power of the emotion by giving it the space and attention it needs.

When you immerse yourself in the emotion, and realize that it is only emotion, it

loses its control. You can clear your head and proceed with your task.

Try it. Next time you’re in the middle of a negative emotion, give yourself the

space to feel the emotion and see what happens. Keep a piece of paper with you

that says the following:

Stop. Immerse for one minute. Do I want to keep this negativity? Breath deep,

exhale, release. Move on!

This will remind you of the steps to the process. Remember; take the time you

need to really immerse yourself in the emotion. Then, when you feel you’ve felt it

enough, release it---really let go of it. You will be surprised at how quickly you can

move on from a negative situation and get to what you really want to do!

·第十三篇：Be Happy 快乐

Be Happy!

“The days that make us happy make us wise.”----John Masefield

when I first read this line by England’s Poet Laureate, it startled me. What did

Masefield mean? Without thinking about it much, I had always assumed that the

opposite was true. But his sober assurance was arresting. I could not forget it.

Finally, I seemed to grasp his meaning and realized that here was a profound

observation. The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception,

not fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom, and without the blind

spots caused by fear.

Active happiness---not mere satisfaction or contentment ---often comes

suddenly, like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what

kind of wisdom has accompanied it. The grass is greener; bird songs are sweeter;

the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable.

Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision.

Nor are the insights of happiness limited to what is near around you. Unhappy,

with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is cut short as

though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles.

The long vista is there for the seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about

you----people, thoughts, emotions, pressures---are now fitted into the larger

scene. Everything assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the beginning of

wisdom.

·第十四篇：The Goodness of life 生命的美好

The Goodness of Life

Though there is much to be concerned about, there is far, far more for which

to be thankful. Though life’s goodness can at times be overshadowed, it is never

outweighed.

For every single act that is senselessly destructive, there are thousands more

small, quiet acts of love, kindness and compassion. For every person who seeks to

hurt, there are many, many more who devote their lives to helping and to healing.

There is goodness to life that cannot be denied.

In the most magnificent vistas and in the smallest details, look closely, for that

goodness always comes shining through.

There si no limit to the goodness of life. It grows more abundant with each

new encounter. The more you experience and appreciate the goodness of life, the

more there is to be lived.

Even when the cold winds blow and the world seems to be cov ered in foggy

shadows, the goodness of life lives on. Open your eyes, open your heart, and you

will see that goodness is everywhere.

Though the goodness of life seems at times to suffer setbacks, it always

endures. For in the darkest moment it becomes vividly clear that life is a priceless

treasure. And so the goodness of life is made even stronger by the very things that

would oppose it.

Time and time again when you feared it was gone forever you found that the

goodness of life was really only a moment away. Around the next corner, inside

every moment, the goodness of life is there to surprise and delight you.

Take a moment to let the goodness of life touch your spirit and calm your

thoughts. Then, share your good fortune with another. For the goodness of life

grows more and more magnificent each time it is given away.

Though the problems constantly scream for attention and the conflicts appear

to rage ever stronger, the goodness of life grows stronger still, quietly, peacefully,

with more purpose and meaning than ever before.

·第十五篇：Facing the Enemies Within 直面内在的敌人

Facing the Enemies Within

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.

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.

Let me tell you about five of the other enemies we face from within. The first

enemy that you’ve got to destroy before it destroys you is indifference. What a

tragic disease this is! “Ho-hum, let it slide. I’ll just drift along.” Here’s one

problem with drifting: you can’t drift your way to the to of the mountain.

The second enemy we face is indecision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity

and enterprise. It will steal your chances for a better future. Take a sword to this

enemy.

The third enemy inside is doubt. Sure, there’s room for healthy skepticism.

You can’t believe everything. But you also can’t let doubt take over. Many people

doubt the past, doubt the future, doubt each other, doubt the government, doubt

the possibilities nad doubt the opportunities. Worse of all, they doubt themselves.

I’m telling you, doubt will destroy your life and your chances of success. It will

empty both your bank account and your heart. Doubt is an enemy. Go after it. Get

rid of it.

The fourth enemy within is worry. We’ve all got to worry some. Just don’t let

conquer you. Instead, let it alarm you. Worry can be useful. If you step off the curb

in New York City and a taxi is coming, you’ve got to worry. But you can’t let worry

loose like a mad dog that drives you into a small corner. Here’s what you’ve got

to do with your worries: drive them into a small corner. Whatever is out to get you,

you’ve got to get it. Whatever is pushing on you, you’ve got to push back.

The fifth interior enemy is overcaution. It is the timid approach to life. Timidity

is not a virtue; it’s an illness. If you let it go, it’ll conquer you. Timid people don’

t get promoted. They don’t advance and grow and become powerful in the

marketplace. You’ve got to avoid overcaution.

Do battle with the enemy. Do battle with your fears. Build your courage to

fight what’s holding ou back, what’s keeping you from your goals and dreams. Be

courageous in your life and in your pursuit of the things you want and the person

you want to become.

·第十六篇：Abundance is a Life Style 富足的生活方式

Abundance is a Life Style

Abundance is a life style, a way of living your life. It isn’t something you buy

now and then or pull down from the cupboard, dust off and use once or twice, and

then return to the cupboard.

Abundance is a philosophy; it appears in your physiology, your value system,

and carries its own set of beliefs. You walk with it, sleep with it, bath with it, feel

with it, and need to maintain and take care of it as well.

Abundance doesn’t always require money. Many people live with all that

money can buy yet live empty inside. Abundance begins inside with some main

self-ingredients, like love, care, kindness and gentleness, thoughtfulness and

compassion. Abundance is a state of being. It radiates outward. It shines like the

sun among the many moons in the world.

Being from the brightness of abundance doesn’t allow the darkness to appear

or be in the path unless a choice to allow it to. The true state of abundance doesn’

t have room for lies or games normally played. The space is too full of abundance.

This may be a challenge because we still need to shine for other to see.

Abundance is seeing people for their gifts and not what they lack or could be.

Seeing all things for their gifts and not what they lack.

Start by knowing what your abundances are, fill that space with you, and be

fully present from that state of being. Your profession of choice is telling you of

knowing and possibilities. That is their gift. Consultants and customer service

professionals have the ministrative assistants and virtual assistants have an

abundance of coordination and time management. Abundance is all around you,

and all within. See what it is; love yourself for what it is, not what you’re missing,

or what that can be better, but for what it is at this present moment.

Be in a state of abundance of what you already have. I guarantee they are

there; it always is buried but there. Breathe them in as if they are the air you

breathe because they are yours. Let go of anything that isn’t abundant for the

time being. Name the shoe boxes in your closet with your gifts of abundance; pull

from them every morning if needed. Know they are there.

Learning to trust in your own abundance is required. When you begin to be

within your own space of abundance, whatever you need will appear whenever

you need it. That’s just the way the higher powers set this universe up to work.

Trust the universal energy. The knowing of it all will humble you to its power yet let

the brightness of you shine everywhere it needs to. Just by being from a state of

abundance, it is being you.

·第十七篇：Human Life a Poem 人生如诗

Human Life a Poem

I think that, from a biological standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem.

It has its own rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay. It begins

with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying awkwardly to

adapt itself to mature society, with its young passions and follies, its ideals and

ambitions; then it reaches a manhood of intense activities, profiting from

experience and learning more about society and human nature; at middle age,

there is a slight easing of tension, a mellowing of character like the ripening of fruit

or the mellowing of good wine, and the gradual acquiring of a more tolerant, more

cynical and at the same time a kindlier view of life; then In the sunset of our life, the

endocrine glands decrease their activity, and if we have a true philosophy of old

age and have ordered our life pattern according to it, it is for us the age of peace

and security and leisure and contentment; finally, life flickers out and one goes into

eternal sleep, never to wake up again.

One should be able to sense the beauty of this rhythm of life, to appreciate, as

we do in grand symphonies, its main theme, its strains of conflict and the final

resolution. The movements of these cycles are very much the same in a normal life,

but the music must be provided by the individual himself. In some souls, the

discordant note becomes harsher and harsher and finally overwhelms or

submerges the main melody. Sometimes the discordant note gains so much power

that the music can no longer go on, and the individual shoots himself with a pistol

or jump into a river. But that is because his original leitmotif has been hopelessly

over-showed through the lack of a good self-education. Otherwise the normal

human life runs to its normal end in kind of dignified movement and procession.

There are sometimes in many of us too many staccatos or impetuosos, and

because the tempo is wrong, the music is not pleasing to the ear; we might have

more of the grand rhythm and majestic tempo o the Ganges, flowing slowly and

eternally into the sea.

No one can say that life with childhood, manhood and old age is not a

beautiful arrangement; the day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has

its seasons, and it is good that it is so. There is no good or bad in life, except what

is good according to its own season. And if we take this biological view of life and

try to live according to the seasons, no one but a conceited fool or an impossible

idealist can deny that human life can be lived like a poem. Shakespeare has

expressed this idea more graphically in his passage about the seven stages of life,

and a good many Chinese writers have said about the same thing. It is curious that

Shakespeare was never very religious, or very much concerned with religion. I

think this was his greatness; he took human life largely as it was, and intruded

himself as little upon the general scheme of things as he did upon the characters

of his plays. Shakespeare was like Nature itself, and that is the greatest compliment

we can pay to a writer or thinker. He merely lived, observed life and went away.

·第十八篇：Solitude 独处

Solitude

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company,

even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never

found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most

part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our

chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and

his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge

College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the

field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he

is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room

alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can :see the folks,:” and

recreate, and, as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence

he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the

day without ennui and :the blues:; but he does not realize that the student, though

in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in

his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though

it may be a more condensed form of it.

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having

had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a

day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have

had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this

frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at

the post-office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live

thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think that

we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice

for all important and hearty communications. Consider the girls in a

factory---never alone, hardly in their dreams. It would be better if there were but

one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live. The value of a man is not in his skin,

that we should touch him.

I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when

nobody calls. Let me suggest a few comparisons, that some one may convey an

idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so

loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray?

And yet it has not the blue devils, but the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of

its waters. The sun is alone, except in thick weather, when there sometimes appear

to be two, but one is a mock sun. god is alone---but the devil, he is far from being

alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion. I am no more lonely than a

single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a

bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Millbrook, or a weathercock, or the

north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first

spider in a new house.

·第十九篇：Giving Life Meaning 给生命以意义

Giving Life Meaning

Have you thought about what you want people to say about you after you’re

gone? Can you hear the voice saying, “He was a great man.” Or “She really will

be missed.” What else do they say?

One of the strangest phenomena of life is to engage in a work that will last

long after death. Isn’t that a lot like investing all your money so that future

generations can bare interest on it? Perhaps, yet if you look deep in your own heart,

you’ll find something drives you to make this kind of contribution---something

drives every human being to find a purpose that lives on after death.

Do you hope to memorialize your name? Have a name that is whispered with

reverent awe? Do you hope to have your face carved upon 50 ft of granite rock? Is

the answer really that simple? Is the purpose of lifetime contribution an ego-driven

desire for a mortal being to have an immortal name or is it something more?

A child alive today will die tomorrow. A baby that had the potential to be the

next Einstein will die from complication is at birth. The circumstances of life are not

set in stone. We are not all meant to live life through to old age. We’ve grown to

perceive life3 as a full cycle with a certain number of years in between. If all of

those years aren’t lived out, it’s a tragedy. A tragedy because a human’s

potential was never realized. A tragedy because a spark was snuffed out before it

ever became a flame.

By virtue of inhabiting a body we accept these risks. We expose our mortal

flesh to the laws of the physical environment around us. The trade off isn’t so bad

when you think about it. The problem comes when we construct mortal fantasies

of what life should be like. When life doesn’t conform to our fantasy we grow

upset, frustrated, or depressed.

We are alive; let us live. We have the ability to experience; let us experience.

We have the ability to learn; let us learn. The meaning of life can be grasped in a

moment. A moment so brief it often evades our perception.

What meaning stands behind the dramatic unfolding of life? What single truth

can we grasp and hang onto for dear life when all other truths around us seem to

fade with time?

These moments are strung together in a series we call events. These events are

strung together in a series we call life. When we seize the moment and bend it

according to our will, a will driven by the spirit deep inside us, then we have

discovered the meaning of life, a meaning for us that shall go on long after we

depart this Earth.

·第二十篇：Relish the Moment 品位现在

Relish the Moment

Tucked away in our subconsciousness is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a

long trip that spans the moment. We are traveling by train. Out the windows, we

drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a

crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power

plant, of row upon row of corn ad wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and

rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a

certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving.

Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of

our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace

the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering---waiting, waiting, waiting for the

station.

“When we reach the station, that will be it!” we cry. “When I’m 18.” “When

I buy a new 450SL Mercedes Benz!” “When I put the last kid through college.”

“When I have paid off the mortgage!” “When I get a promotion.” “When I reach

the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!”

Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at

once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It

constantly outdistances us.

It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over

yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of

today.

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more

mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch

more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station

will come soon enough.

·第二十一篇：The Love of Beauty 爱美

The Love of Beauty

The love of beauty is an essential part of all healthy human nature. It is a moral

quality. The absence of it is not an assured ground of condemnation, but the

presence of it is an invariable sign of goodness of heart. In proportion to the

degree in which it is felt will probably be the degree in which nobleness and

beauty of character will be attained.

Natural beauty is an all-pervading presence. The universe is its temple. It

unfolds into the numberless flowers of spring. It waves in the branches of trees and

the green blades of grass. It haunts the depths of the earth and the sea. It gleams

from the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute

objects but the oceans, the mountains, the clouds, the stars, the rising and the

setting sun---all overflow with beauty. This beauty is so precious, and so congenial

to our tenderest and noblest feelings, that it is painful to think of the multitude of

people living in the midst of it and yet remaining almost blind to it.

All persons should seek to become acquainted with the beauty in nature.

There is not a worm we tread upon, nor a leaf that dances merrily as it falls before

the autumn winds, but calls for our study and admiration. The power to

appreciated beauty not merely increases our sources of happiness---it enlarges

our moral nature, too. Beauty calms our restlessness and dispels our cares. Go into

the fields or the woods, spend a summer day by the sea or the mountains, and all

your little perplexities and anxieties will vanish. Listen to sweet music, and your

foolish fears and petty jealousies will pass away. The beauty of the world helps us

to seek and find the beauty of goodness.

·第二十二篇：The Happy Door 快乐之门

The Happy door

Happiness is like a pebble dropped into a pool to set in motion an

ever-widening circle of ripples. As Stevenson has said, being happy is a duty.

There is no exact definition of the word happiness. Happy people are happy

for all sorts of reasons. The key is not wealth or physical well-being, since we find

beggars, invalids and so-called failures, who are extremely happy.

Being happy is a sort of unexpected dividend. But staying happy is an

accomplishment, a triumph of soul and character. It is not selfish to strive for it. It is,

indeed, a duty to ourselves and others.

Being unhappy is like an infectious disease. It causes people to shrink away

from the sufferer. He soon finds himself alone, miserable and embittered. There is,

however, a cure so simple as to seem, at first glance, ridiculous; if you don’t feel

happy, pretend to be!

It works. Before long you will find that instead of repelling people, you attract

them. You discover how deeply rewarding it is to be the center of wider and wider

circles of good will.

Then the make-believe becomes a reality. You possess the secret of peace of

mind, and can forget yourself in being of service to others.

Being happy, once it is realized as a duty and established as a habit, opens

doors into unimaginable gardens thronged with grateful friends.

·第二十三篇：Born to Win 生而为赢

Born to Win

Each human being is born as something new, something that never existed

before. Each is born with the capacity to win at life. Each person has a unique way

of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and thinking. Each has his or her own unique

potentials---capabilities and limitations. Each can be a significant, thinking, aware,

and creative being---a productive person, a winner.

The word “winner” and “loser” have many meanings. When we refer to a

person as a winner, we do not mean one who makes someone else lose. To us, a

winner is one who responds authentically by being credible, trustworthy,

responsive, and genuine, both as an individual and as a member of a society.

Winners do not dedicated their lives to a concept of what they imagine they

should be; rather, they are themselves and as such do not use their energy putting

on a performance, maintaining pretence and manipulating others. They are aware

that there is a difference between being loving and acting loving, between being

stupid and acting stupid, between being knowledgeable and acting

knowledgeable. Winners do not need to hide behind a mask.

Winners are not afraid to do their own thinking and to use their own

knowledge. They can separate facts from opinions and don’t pretend to have all

the answers. They listen to others, evaluate what they say, but come to their own

conclusions. Although winners can admire and respect other people, they are not

totally defined, demolished, bound, or awed by them.

Winners do not play “helpless”, nor do they play the blaming game. Instead,

they assume responsibility for their own lives. They don’t give others a false

authority over them. Winners are their own bosses and know it.

A winner’s timing is right. Winners respond appropriately to the situation.

Their responses are related to the message sent and preserve the significance,

worth, well-being, and dignity of the people involved. Winners know that for

everything there is a season and for every activity a time.

Although winners can freely enjoy themselves, they can also postpone

enjoyment, can discipline themselves in the present to enhance their enjoyment in

the future. Winners are not afraid to go after what he wants, but they do so in

proper ways. Winners do not get their security by controlling others. They do not

set themselves up to lose.

A winner cares about the world and its peoples. A winner is not isolated from

the general problems of society, but is concerned, compassionate, and committed

to improving the quality of life. Even in the face of national and international

adversity, a winner’s self-image is not one of a powerless individual. A winner

works to make the world a better place.

·第二十四篇：Work and Pleasure 工作和娱乐

Work and Pleasure

To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three

hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I will take

an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental

effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily

work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you

have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human being may be divided into

three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and

those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual laborer, tired out

with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or

baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the

professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious

things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend.

It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided

into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure;

and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the

majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the

factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a

keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But

Fortune’s favored children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural

harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday,

and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in

an absorbing vacation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a

change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be

that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of

banishing it at intervals from their minds.

·第二十五篇：Mirror, Mirror--What do I see镜子,镜子,告诉我

Mirror, Mirror---What do I See?

A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world.

Everyone you meet is your mirror.

Mirrors have a very particular function. They reflect the image in front of them.

Just as a physical mirror serves as the vehicle to reflection, so do all of the people

in our lives.

When we see something beautiful such as a flower garden, that garden serves

as a reflection. In order to see the beauty in front of us, we must be able to see the

beauty inside of ourselves. When we love someone, it’s a reflection of loving

ourselves. When we love someone, it’s a reflection of loving ourselves. We have

often heard things like “I love how I am when I’m with that person.” That simply

translates into “I’m able to love me when I love that other person.” Oftentimes,

when we meet someone new, we feel as though we “click”. Sometimes it’s as if

we’ve known each other for a long time. That feeling can come from sharing

similarities.

Just as the “mirror” or other person can be a positive reflection, it is more

likely that we’ll notice it when it has a negative connotation. For example, it’s easy

to remember times when we have met someone we’re not particularly crazy about.

We may have some criticism in our mind about the person. This is especially true

when we get to know someone with whom we would rather spend less time.

Frequently, when we dislike qualities in other people, ironically, it’s usually the

mirror that’s speaking to us.

I began questioning myself further each time I encountered someone that I

didn’t particularly like. Each time, I asked myself, “What is it about that person

that I don’t like?” and then “Is there something similar in me?” in every instance,

I could see a piece of that quality in me, and sometimes I had to really get very

introspective. So what did that mean?

It means that just as I can get annoyed or disturbed when I notice that aspect

in someone else, I better reexamine my qualities and consider making some

changes. Even if I’m not willing to make a drastic change, at least I consider how I

might modify some of the things that I’m doing.

At times we meet someone new and feel distant, disconnected, or disgusted.

Although we don’t want to believe it, and it’s not easy or desirable to look further,

it can be a great learning lesson to figure out what part of the person is being

reflected in you. It’s simply just another way to create more self-awareness.

·第二十六篇：On Motes and Beams 微尘与栋梁

On Motes and Beams

It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the

offenses of others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that

have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what we cannot

excuse in others. We turn our attention away from our own defects, and when we

are forced by untoward events to consider them, find it easy to condone them. For

all I know we are right to do this; they are part of us and we must accept the good

and bad in ourselves together.

But when we come to judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that

we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves fro which we

have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of

the world. To take a trivial instance: how scornful we are when we catch someone

out telling a lie; but who can say that he has never told not one, but a hundred?

There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of

greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have

more strength of character, or more opportunity, and so in one direction or

another give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same. For my

part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that

if I set down every action in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind,

the world would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these

reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as

well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows, even the

most eminent and respectable, with humor, and if they lead us to take ourselves

not too seriously.

·第二十七篇：An October Sunrise 十月的日出

An October Sunrise

I was up the next morning be fore the October sunrise, and away through the

wild and the woodland. The rising of the sun was noble in the cold and warmth of

it peeping down the spread of light, he raised his shoulder heavily over the edge of

grey mountain and wavering length of upland. Beneath his gaze the dew-fogs

dipped, and crept to crept to the hollow places; then stole away in line and column,

holding skirts, and clinging subtly at the sheltering corners where rock hung over

grassland, while the brave lines of the hills came forth, one beyond other gliding.

The woods arose in folds, like drapery of awakened mountains, stately with a

depth of awe, and memory of the tempests. Autumn’s mellow hand was upon

them, as they owned already, touched with gold and red and olive, and their joy

towards the sun was less to a bridegroom than a father.

Yet before the floating impress of the woods could clear it self, suddenly the

gladsome light leaped over hill and valley, casting amber, blue, and purple, and a

tint of rich red rose; according to the scene they lit on, and the curtain flung

around; yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven hoof of darkness, all on the

wings of hope advancing, and proclaiming, “God is here!” then life and joy

sprang reassured from every crouching hollow; every flower, and bud and bird had

a fluttering sense of them; and all the flashing of God’s gaze merged into soft

beneficence.

So, perhaps, shall break upon us that eternal morning, when crag and chasm

shall be no more, neither hill and valley, nor great unvintaged ocean; but all things

shall arise, and shine in the light of the Father’s countenance, because itself is

risen.

·第二十八篇：To Be or Not to Be 生存还是毁灭

To be or not to be

Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of

the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are

the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for

himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or

not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly

and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not,

which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered

it by saying: "I think, therefore am."

But the best definition of existence ever saw did another philosopher who said:

"To be is to be in relations." If this true, then the more relations a living thing has,

the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and

intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love

our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you

are interest-ed only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So

far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports,

unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead.

Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest--even more,

a new accomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply

interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy; the real pessimist is

the person who has lost interest.

Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life

by contacts, new friends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true

of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your live be also.

If your thoughts are confined only to your business, only to your physical welfare,

only to the narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow

cir-conscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you

are living in China~ if you’re interested in the characters of a good novel, then

you are living with those highly interesting people, if you listen intently to fine

music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of

passion and imagination.

To be or not to be--to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on

ourselves. Let widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let live!

·第二十九篇：Gettysburg Address 葛底斯堡演说

Gettysburg Address

Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent

a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men

are created equal.

Now, we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any

nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great

battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final

resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is

altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot

hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have

consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note

nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It

is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they

who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here

dedicated to the great task remaining before us---that from these honored dead

we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure

of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that

government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from

the earth.

·第三十篇：First Inaugural Address(Excerpts) 就职演讲（节选）

First Inaugural Address

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom,

symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning; signifying renewal, as well as change.

For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our

forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

in your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success

or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of

Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The

graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms

we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the

burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope; patient

in tribulation”, a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty,

disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and

South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you

join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the

role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this

responsibility. I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places

with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion

which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the

glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask

what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what

together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us

here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a

good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let

us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing

that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.

Welcome!