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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.
译文： 青春
青春不是年华，而是心理；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏的想象，炙热的恋爱；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。这样锐气，二十后生而有之，六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并不是垂老，理想遗弃，方堕暮年。
岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱扔掉，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，奇迹之魅惑，孩童般纯真无邪久盛不衰。每人心中皆有一台天线，只须你从天上人间同意美好、期望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号，你就青春永驻，风华常存。、
一旦天线降低，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃自然地产生，即便年方二十，实已垂垂老矣；然则只须树起天线，捕捉乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。
第二篇
Three Days to See倘若给我三天光明（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.
译文： 倘若给我三天光明（节选）
大家都读过震惊人心的故事，故事中的主人公只能再活一段非常有限的时光，有时长达一年，有时却短至1日。但大家一直想要了解，注定要去世人的会选择怎么样度过自己最后的时光。当然，我说的是那些有选择权利的自由人，而不是那些活动范围遭到严格限定的死囚。
如此的故事让大家考虑，在类似的处境下，大家该做些什么？作为终有一死的人，在临终前的几个小时内大家应该干什么事，历程些什么或做什么联想？回忆往昔，什么使大家高兴快乐？什么又使大家悔恨不已？
有时我想，把天天都当作生命中的最后一天来边，也不失为一个非常好的生活法则。这种态度会使人格外看重生命的价值。大家天天都要以高雅的姿态，充沛的精力，抱着感恩之心来生活。但当时间以无休止的日，月和年在大家面前流逝时，大家却常常没了这种子感觉。当然，也有人奉行“吃，喝，享受”的享乐主义信条，但绝大部分人还是会遭到即将来临的死亡的惩罚。
在故事中，将死的主人公一般都在最后一刻因突降的幸运而获救，但他的价值观一般都会改变，他变得愈加理解生命的意义及其永恒的精神价值。大家常常注意到，那些生活在或过去生活在死亡阴影下的人不管做什么都会感到幸福。
然而，大家中的大部分人都把生命看成是理所当然的。大家了解有一天大家势必面对死亡，但一直认为那一天还在遥远的以后。当大家身强体健之时，死亡简直不可想象，大家极少考虑到它。日子多得仿佛没尽头。因此大家一味忙于琐事，几乎意识不到大家对待生活的冷漠态度。
我担忧同样的冷漠也存在于大家对自己官能和意识的运用上。只有聋子才理解听力的要紧，只有盲人才了解视觉的可贵，这特别适用于那些成年后才失去视力或听力之苦的人极少充分借助这类宝贵的能力。他们的双眼和耳朵模糊地感受着周围的景物与声音，心神不定，也无所感激。这正好大家只有在失去后才了解珍惜一样，大家只有在生病后才意识到健康的可贵。
我常常想，假如每一个人在年轻的时候都有几天失时失聪，也不失为一件幸事。黑暗将使他愈加感激光明，寂静将告诉他声音的美妙。
第三篇
Companionship of Books 以书为伴
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.
译文： 以书为伴（节选）
一般看一个读些什么书就是否了解他的为人，就像看他同什么人交往就是否了解他的为人一样，由于有人以人为伴，也有人以书为伴。无论是书友还是朋友，大家都要以最好的为伴。
好书就像是你最好的朋友。它一直不渝，过去这样，目前这样，以后也永远不变。它是最有耐心，最让人愉悦的伴侣。在大家穷愁潦倒，临危遭难时，它也不会抛弃大家，对大家一直一如既往地亲切。在大家年轻时，好书陶冶大家的性情，增长大家的常识；到大家年老时，它又给大家以慰藉和勉励。
大家常常由于喜欢同一本书而结为知已，就像有时两个人由于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。大家可以通过一同喜欢的作家交流思想，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，珍藏着生活的思想的精华，由于生活的境界主要就是其思想的境界。因此，最好的书是金玉良言和崇高思想的宝库，这类良言和思想若铭记于心并多加珍视，就会成为大家忠实的伴侣和永恒的慰藉。
书本具备不朽的本质，是为人类努力创造的最为持久的成就。寺庙会倒坍，神像会朽烂，而书却经久长存。对于伟大的思想来讲，时间是不重要的。多年前第一次闪现于作者脑海的伟大思想今日依旧清爽如故。时间惟一有哪些用途是淘汰不好的作品，由于只有真的的佳作才能经世长存。
书本介绍大家与最棒的人为伍，使大家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。大家感觉自己仿佛在作者所描绘的舞台上和他们一块粉墨亮相。
即便在人世间，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。书是生活到今天仍在聆听的智慧之声，永远充满着活力。
第四篇
If I Rest,I Rust 假如我休息，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.
译文： 假如我休息，我就会生锈
在一把旧钥匙上发现了一则意义深远的铭文——假如我休息，我就会生锈。对于那些懒散而烦恼的人来讲，这将是至理名言。甚至最为勤勉的人也以此作为警示：假如一个人有才能而不需要，就像废弃钥匙上的铁一样，这类才能就会非常快生锈，并最后没办法完成安排给我们的工作。
有的人想获得伟人所获得并维持的收获，他们就需要不断运用自己才能，以便开启常识的大门，即那些通往人类努力探求的每个范围的大门，这类范围包含各种职业：科学，艺术，文学，农业等。
勤奋使开启成功宝库的钥匙维持光亮。假如休•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•斯通假如闲暇时什么事都不干，就不会出版数学词典，也不会发现开启数学之门的钥匙。假如苏格兰年轻人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况，而不是借用一串珠子计算星星的地方，他就不会成为著名的天文学家。
劳动征服所有。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，方向正确的每天劳动。正如要想拥有自由就要时刻维持警惕一样，要想获得伟大的，持久的成功，就需要坚持不懈地努力。
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.
译文： 抱负
一个缺少抱负的世界将会如何，这不难想象。可能，这将是一个更为友善的世界：没渴求，没磨擦，没失望。大家或有时间进行深思。他们所从事的工作将不是为了他们自己，而是为了整个集体。角逐从来不会介入；冲突将被消除。大家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，由于由激烈拼争引起的心脏病和中风所致使的死亡将愈加少。焦虑将会消失。时光流逝，抱负却早已离得远远的人心。
啊，长此以往生活将变得多么乏味无聊！
有一种风靡的看法觉得，成功是一种神话，因此抱负亦属虚幻。这是否说事实上并不丰在成功？收获本身就是一场空？与很多运动和事件的力量相比，男男女女的努力看上去微不足？显然，并不是所有些成功都值得景仰，也并不是所有些抱负都值得追求。对值得和不值得的选择，一个人自然而然非常快就能掌握。但即便是最为愤世嫉俗的人暗地里也承认，成功确实存在，收获的意义举足轻重，而把世上男男女女的所作所为说成是徒劳无功才是真的的无稽之谈。觉得成功没有的看法非常可能导致混乱。这种看法的本意是一笔勾销所有提升能力的动机，求取营业额的兴趣和对子孙后代的关注。
大家没办法选择出生，没办法选择爸爸妈妈，没办法选择生的历史时期与国家，或是成长的周遭环境。大家大部分人都没办法选择死亡，没办法选择死亡的时间或条件。但在这类没办法选择之中，大家的确可以选择我们的生活方法：是勇敢无畏还是胆小怯懦，是光明磊落还是厚颜无耻，是目的坚定还是随波逐流。大家决定日常什么至关要紧，什么微不足道。大家决定，用以显示大家自己重要程度的，不是大家做了哪些，就是大家拒绝做些什么。但不论世界对大家所做的选择和决定有多么漠不关心，这类选择和决定终究是大家自己做出的。大家决定，大家选择。而当大家决定和选择时，大家的生活便得以形成。最后构筑大家命的就是抱负之所在。
第六篇
What I have Lived for 我为什么而生
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.
译文： 我为什么而生
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，对常识的探索和对人类苦难很难抑制的屿。这类激情像狂风，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，第一由于它使我心为之着迷，这种很难名状的美妙迷醉使我想用所有些余生去换取就算几个小时如此的幸福。我寻求爱，还由于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，由于在我所目睹的结合中，我仿佛看到了圣贤与诗大家所向往的天堂之景。这就是我所探寻的，虽然对人的一生而言好像有的遥不可及，但至少是我用尽一生所领悟到的。
我用同样的激情去寻求常识。我期望能理解人类的心灵，期望可以了解群星闪烁的缘由。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，尽管并非不少。
爱和常识，用它们的力量把人引向天堂。但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。我渴望可以降低邪恶，但我没有办法，我也难逃其折磨。
这就是我的一生。我已经找到它的价值。而且假如有机会，我非常想能再活它一次。
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