勵志英語(yǔ)小文章

　　"I dread to come to the end of the year,said a friend to me recently, "it makes me realize I am growing old.”

　　William James, the great psychologist, said that most men are "old fogies at twenty-five",He was right. Most men at twenty-five are satisfied with their jobs. They have accumulated the little stock of prejudices that they call their "Principles, " and closed their minds to all new ideas; they have ceased to grow.

　　The minutea man ceases to grow-no matter what his years-that minute he begins to be old. On the other hand, the really great man never grows old.

　　Goethe passed out at eighty-three, and finished his Faust only a few years earlier; Gladstone took up a new language when he was seventy.

　　Laplace, the astronomer, was still at work when death caught up with him at seventy-eight. He died crying, "What we know is nothing; what we do not know is immense."

　　And there you have the real answer to the question, "When is a man old?"

　　Laplace at seventy-eight died young. He was still unsatisfied, still sure that he had a lot to learn.

　　As long as a man can keep himself in that attitude of mind, as long as he can look back on every year and say , "I grew," he is still young.

　　The minute he ceases to grow, the minute he says to himself, "I know all that I need to know,"--that day youth stops. He may be twenty-five or seventy-five, it makes no difference. On that day he begins to be old.

　　[參考譯文]

　　“我懼怕臨近歲末年尾”，一位朋友最近對我說(shuō)：“它使我意識到我正在變老�！�

　　偉大的心理學(xué)家威廉·詹姆斯就曾說(shuō)過(guò)，大多數人“25歲時(shí)就成了守舊落伍者”。他的話(huà)是對的。大多數人25歲時(shí)就滿(mǎn)足于他們的工作。他們已經(jīng)積累了一些他們稱(chēng)之為“原則”的偏見(jiàn)，對所有新的思想關(guān)閉心靈之門(mén);他們已經(jīng)停止成長(cháng)。

　　一個(gè)人一旦停止成長(cháng)--不管他年齡多大--他就開(kāi)始衰老。反之，真正的偉人從來(lái)不會(huì )衰老。

　　歌德享年83歲，逝世前幾年才完成《浮士德》;格萊斯頓70歲時(shí)又開(kāi)始學(xué)習一門(mén)外國語(yǔ);法國天文學(xué)家拉普拉斯78歲死時(shí)還在工作著(zhù)。臨死前，他大聲喊道：“我們所知的太少太少，我們所不知的太多太多�！�

　　“一個(gè)人何時(shí)變老?”，從這類(lèi)事例中對這個(gè)問(wèn)題你已經(jīng)有了真正的答案。

　　拉普拉斯78歲逝世時(shí)依然年輕。他依舊不滿(mǎn)足，依舊感到許多東西要學(xué)。

　　一個(gè)人，只要他能夠保持這種心態(tài)，只要他在回首過(guò)去的一年時(shí)能夠說(shuō)“我在成長(cháng)”，他就依然年輕。

　　他一旦停止成長(cháng)，他一旦對自己說(shuō)“我該懂的都懂了”，這個(gè)時(shí)候他的青春也就完了。他可能在25歲時(shí)死去，也可能在75歲時(shí)死去，這都沒(méi)有區別。就在那一天，他開(kāi)始變老。

　　勵志英語(yǔ)小文章：固守自己的優(yōu)勢

　　Stick to your special talents

　　You were born with a special talent. It may be to sing, write, teach, paint, mentor, preach, defend or befriend. You have something special to offer the world, something you can do better than 10,000 others. You must keep learning and trying new things to find your special talent. The world needs your gift. Be aware that even a special talent can go stale if you don’t keep using and honing it. Endeavor to keep your talents and all your skills up to date.

　　An advantage isn’t an advantage unless you use it. Find ways to use your advantages to set and reach your goals. Likewise, you should recognize and then try to minimize the impact of your limitations. Remember that not all advantages are transferable. Just because you are talented in one area doesn’t mean that you will be talented at everything you try. The successful real estate investor can easily lose her money opening a restaurant. Stick to your advantages and don’t stray from them without reasoned justification.

　　[參考譯文]

　　固守自己的優(yōu)勢

　　你生而有自己的特殊天賦。你的特長(cháng)可能是唱歌，寫(xiě)作，教書(shū)，繪畫(huà)，勸導，步道，辯護或交友。你總有些特殊之處可以貢獻給這個(gè)世界，有些事你可以做的比另外一萬(wàn)個(gè)人做的都好。你必須不斷學(xué)習和嘗試新的事物從而發(fā)現自己的特殊才能。時(shí)間需要你的貢獻饋贈。要明白即使是特殊才能如果不經(jīng)常使用而且磨練的話(huà)也會(huì )失效。因此要盡力使自己的天賦與所有的技能跟上時(shí)代。

　　任何優(yōu)勢如果不用的話(huà)也就不稱(chēng)其為優(yōu)勢了。找到辦法運用你的優(yōu)勢來(lái)確定并實(shí)現你的目標。同樣的你應該意識到自己的不足之處并盡力將其不利影響限制在最小程度。切記并不是所有的優(yōu)勢都能夠相互轉換的：你在某一方面有天賦并不意味著(zhù)你在自己所嘗試的一切事情上都有天賦。一個(gè)成功的房地產(chǎn)投資商很可能因為開(kāi)餐館而虧本。因此要固守自己的優(yōu)勢，在沒(méi)有理性的確定判斷之前不要輕易離開(kāi)自己擅長(cháng)的領(lǐng)域。

　　勵志英語(yǔ)小文章：知識與美德

　　Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles.

　　Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life--these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University; I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and on the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride of man.

　　[參考譯文]

　　知識是一回事，美德是另一回事。好意并非良心，優(yōu)雅并非謙讓?zhuān)瑥V博與公正的觀(guān)點(diǎn)也并非信仰。哲學(xué)，無(wú)論多么富有啟迪和深奧莫測，都無(wú)法駕馭情感，不具備有影響力的動(dòng)機，不具有導致生動(dòng)活潑的原理。

　　文科教育并不造就基督教徒抑或天主教徒，而是造就了紳士。造就一個(gè)紳士誠為美事。有教養的才智，優(yōu)雅的情趣，正直、公正而冷靜的頭腦，高貴而彬彬有禮的舉止--這些是與淵博的學(xué)識生來(lái)固有的品質(zhì), 它也是大學(xué)教育的目的。對此我提倡之，并將加以闡釋和堅持。然而我要說(shuō)的是，它們仍然不能確保圣潔，或甚至不能保證誠實(shí)。它們可以附庸于世故的俗人，附庸于玩世不恭的浪子。唉，當他們用它偽裝起來(lái)時(shí)，就更增加了他們外表上的冷靜、快活和魅力。就其本身而言，它們似乎已遠非其本來(lái)面目，它們似乎一遠看的美德，經(jīng)久久細察方可探知。因此它們受到廣泛的責難，指責其虛飾與偽善。我要強調，這絕非是因為其自身有什么過(guò)錯，而是因為教授們和贊美者們一味地把它們弄得面目全非，并且還要殷勤地獻上其本身并不希冀的贊頌。如若用剃刀就可以開(kāi)采出花崗巖，用絲線(xiàn)即能系泊位船只，那么，也許你才能希望用人的知識和理性這樣美妙而優(yōu)雅的東西去與人類(lèi)的情感與高傲那樣的龐然大物進(jìn)行抗爭。

　　這里的文字遠離塵囂漠視浮躁，請你放慢腳步用心體會(huì )世界的美好。點(diǎn)亮你幸福多彩的每一天。

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