新东方背诵美文——生而为赢

·第篇：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 selfdistrust 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 书伴（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 RestI Rust 果休息会生锈
If I Rest I Rust

The significant inscription found on an old keyIf I rest I rustwould 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 agricultureevery 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 allnot inconstant spasmodic or illdirected labor but faithful unremitting daily effort toward a welldirected 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 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 ecstasyecstasy 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 lonelinessthat 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 whatat lastI 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 threshingfloor 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 见名
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 50Percent Theory of Life 生活理半半
The 50Percent Theory of Life

I believe in the 50percent 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 flipflop acrobatically This is what convinces me to believe in the 50percent theory

One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so floodprone that neighbors laughed I felt chagrined at the wasted effort Summer turned brutalthe worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime The airconditioned died the well went dry the marriage ended the job lost the money gone I was living lyrics from a country tunemusic 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 50percent 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 cornfat healthy threetoastalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tipwhile my neighbors’ fields yielded only brown empty husks

Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50percent expectation and they probably will again in the future I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought

·第十篇：What is Your Recovery Rate 恢复速率少？
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 makeover 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 清理心灵空间
Clear Your Mental Space

Think about the last time you felt a negative emotionlike 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 minutebut only one minuteto 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 simplealmost 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 itreally 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 wiseJohn 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 happinessnot 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 youpeople thoughts emotions pressuresare 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 生命美
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 is 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 直面敌
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 Hohum 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 selfingredients 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 生诗
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 overshowed through the lack of a good selfeducation 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 postoffice 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 factorynever 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 alonebut 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 horsefly 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 生命意义
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 contributionsomething 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 egodriven 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
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 loiteringwaiting 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 allpervading 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 sunall 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 happinessit 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 快乐门
The Happy door

Happiness is like a pebble dropped into a pool to set in motion an everwidening 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 wellbeing since we find beggars invalids and socalled 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 makebelieve 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 potentialscapabilities and limitations Each can be a significant thinking aware and creative beinga 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 wellbeing 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 selfimage 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 MirrorWhat do I see镜子镜子告诉
Mirror MirrorWhat 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 selfawareness

·第二十六篇：On Motes and Beams 微尘栋梁
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 dewfogs 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 interested only in your regular occupation you are alive only to that extent So far as other things are concernedpoetry and prose music pictures sports unselfish friendships politics international affairsyou are dead

Contrariwise it is true that every time you acquire a new interesteven more a new accomplishmentyou 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 circonscribed 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 beto 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 restingplace 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 usthat 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) 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


文档香网(httpswwwxiangdangnet)户传

《香当网》用户分享的内容，不代表《香当网》观点或立场，请自行判断内容的真实性和可靠性！
该内容是文档的文本内容，更好的格式请下载文档