英語經典美文心靈雞湯精選
美文教學對培養學生的語言素養和人文素養具有極大益處,更能豐富學生的精神世界,磨鍊學生的意志。下面是本站小編帶來的英語經典美文心靈雞湯，歡迎閱讀!
What I Have Lived for
我爲什麼活着
Bertrand Russell
[英]伯特蘭·羅素
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 e passions，like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish,reaching to the verge of despair.
對愛的渴望、對知識的追求和對人類苦難難以忍受的憐憫之心—這三種樸素而不可抗拒的情感主宰着我的生活。這些情感似陣陣颶風，任意地把我吹得飄來蕩去，穿過痛苦的海洋，抵達絕望的彼岸。
I have sought love，first，because it brings ecstasy-ecstasy so great that I would have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of 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 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 1 sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what-at last-I have found.
我曾尋求過愛，首先是因爲愛可以使人欣喜若狂—它是如此令人狂喜，爲了片刻的歡娛，我寧願犧牲我的餘生;我曾尋求過愛，其次是因爲它能解除人的孤獨感—置身於這可怕的孤獨中，那令人震頗的感覺，會掠過這個世界的邊緣，把人帶入無聲無息的寒氣襲人的無底深淵;我曾尋求過愛，還因爲在愛的結合，在這一神祕的縮影中，我看到了聖賢和詩人們所曾幻想的天堂景色。這也正是我追求的。儘管這對世間凡人而言似乎是一種奢望，但這是我最終所找到的。
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 Pythagoreans power by which number holds away above the flux. A little of this, but, not much, I have achieved.
帶着同樣的激情，我曾追求過知識。我曾希望瞭解人類的心靈，我曾想知道星辰爲何發光，我曾試圖理解畢達哥拉斯的力量，通過他的力量，數駕馭了萬物的變化。我獲得了一點知識，但並不多。
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberated 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.
愛和知識，它們可以把人引入天堂。但是憐憫之心又常常把我帶回塵世。痛苦的呼喚在我心中回晌激盪。嗷嗷待哺的孩子，被鞭撻的受壓迫者，孤獨無助的老人—兒女們憎恨的負擔，還有那充滿着孤獨、貧窮和痛苦的世界，都在嘲弄着人類生活本應有的美好。我渴望減少人間的邪惡，卻無能爲力，也因此受着煎熬。
This has been my life. I have found it worth living. And I would gladly live ii again if the chance were offered to me.
這就是我的生活，我覺得活得值。假若天賜良機，我願高高興興地再如此活一次。
英語經典美文心靈雞湯閱讀However Mean Your Life Is
無論你的生活如何卑微
Henry David Thoreau
[美]亨利·大衛·梭羅
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shirk it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.
不管你的生活如何卑微，你都要正視它，生活下去;不要逃避生活，也不要惡語相加。你的生活不像你自己想象得那麼槽糕。當你最富有的時候，生活看上去反倒是最貧窮的。故意挑毛病的人即使在天堂也能挑出瑕疵。
Love your life，poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling，glorious hours，even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there，and have as cheering thoughts，as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old;return to them. Things do not change;we change. Sell your clothes and keep your will see that you do not want society. If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me. The philosopher said，"From an army of three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in disorder; from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought."Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on;it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. The shadows of poverty and meanness gather around us, "and lo! creation widens to our view." We are often reminded that if there were bestowed on us the wealth of Croesus, our aims must still be the same, and our means essentially the same. Moreover, if you are restricted in your range by poverty, if you cannot buy books and newspapers,for instance, you are but confined to the most significant and vital experiences;you are compelled to deal with the material which yields the most sugar and the most starch. It is life near the bone where it is sweetest. You are defended from being a trifler. No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher. Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.
雖然生活清貧，但你要對生活付出熱情。即便身處貧民院，你也可能會分享到一段快樂、激動、燦爛的時光。西下的落日灑在貧民院窗戶上的光芒，與照在富貴人家豪宅上的一樣光彩奪目;到了早春的時候，門前的積雪同樣會融化。我唯一能看到的是:一個心態平靜的人在那裏可以心滿意足地生活，懷着樂觀向上的思想，彷彿居住在皇宮裏一般。在我看來，城鎮貧民的生活反倒常常是最獨立的。也許他們很偉大，可以坦然地對待世間的事情。大部分人對於城鎮的恩惠不屑一顧，可在現實生活中，他們維持生活的手段反而經常是不誠實的，這讓他們更爲聲名狼藉。像聖賢一樣，如同培育花園中的花草一樣來培育貧困吧。沒必要不辭辛苦地去獲取新東西，不管是衣服還是朋友，讓舊的翻新，回到它們的懷抱。世間萬物不會變化，變的是我們。賣掉衣服時，你要保留自己的思想。上帝會見證，你並不想融入社會。如果我整天被侷限在閣樓的角落，如同一隻蜘蛛，可只要我還有自己的思想，那麼世界還是原來那樣大。一位哲人曾說過:“三軍可奪帥也，匹夫不可奪志也。”不要迫切謀求自己的發展，不要讓各種影響干擾自己，這一切都是浪費。因爲謙卑如同黑暗，揭露出天國之光。貧窮與卑賤的陰雲糾纏着我們，“看啊!天地萬物在我們的眼界中擴大了。”我們常常得到警示，如果上天賦予我們克洛索斯相同的財富，我們的目標一定不會改變，我們的方式也將不會改變。此外，如果貧困束縛了你，例如，你沒錢買書和報紙，你的經驗只是侷限於最有意義、最爲重要的那一部分;你被迫與那些糖和澱粉含量最高的物質應付。越靠近骨頭的地方就越甜美，你不可能再成爲一個不務正業的人。寬宏大量，不會讓曾在較低層次的人在較高層次失去什麼。過多的財富只能買到過多的物品，而人所必需的靈魂是用金錢買不到的。
I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries. My neighbors tell me of their adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies,what notabilities they met at the dinner-table:but I am no more interested in such tilings than in the contents of the Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are about costume and manners chiefly; but a goose is a goose still, dress it as you will. They tell me of California and Texas, of England and the Indies,of the Hon. Mr.—of Georgia or of Massachusetts, all transient and fleeting phenomena, till I am ready to leap from their court-yard like the Mameluke bey.
我住在一堵鉛牆的角落裏，而且鉛牆裏還灌注了一點銀銅的合金。每當我正午休息時，經常能聽到陣陣雜亂無章的喧鬧聲。這噪音源自我的同代人，我的鄰居向我所講述的他的奇遇，都是和那些知名的紳士淑女有關的，如他們在宴會桌上遇到了哪些重要人物。但是我對這些事情根本沒有興趣，這如同(每日時報)的內容一樣乏味，主要圍繞服飾打扮和禮節舉止是興趣和談話的主題。但是任你怎麼去刻意裝扮，呆頭鵝總歸是呆頭鵝。他們向我不厭其煩地講起加利福尼亞和得克薩斯，英格蘭和東西印度羣島，來自佐治亞或馬薩諸塞的尊敬的某某先生—全是瞬間即逝、不能長存的事情，我終於無法忍受，差點要像馬穆魯克大人一樣從他們的庭院中偷偷溜走。
I delight to come to my bearings-not walk in procession with pomp and parade，in a conspicuous place，but to walk even with the Builder of the universe, if I may-not to live in this restless，nervous，bustling，trivial Nineteenth Century,but stand or sit thoughtfully while it goes by. What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator. I love to weigh, to settle,to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me-not hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less-not suppose a case, but take the case that is;to travel the I can，and that on which no power can resist me. It affords me no satisfaction to commence to spring an arch before I have got a solid foundation. There is a solid bottom everywhere. We read that the traveler asked the boy if the swamp before him had a hard bottom. The boy replied that it had. But presently the traveler's horse sank in up to the girths, and he observed to the boy, "I thought you said that this bog had a hard bottom" . "So it has,”answered the latter, "but you have not got half way to it yet." So it is with the bogs and quicksands of society; but he is an old boy that knows it. Only what is thought, said, or done at a certain rare coincidence is good. I would not be one of those who will foolishly drive a nail into mere lath and plastering;such a deed would keep me awake nights. Give me a hammer, and let me feel for the furring. Do not depend on the putty. Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfactory-a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse. So will help you God,and so only. Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work.
我喜歡處在我自己的世界—不願招人耳目地走在盛大的遊行慶祝隊伍中，而想與宇宙的創造者平等地一起同行，假如可以的話，我不想生活在這個輕浮急躁、神經兮兮、熙熙攘攘、舉止隨便的19世紀，而想伴着19世紀一天天地流逝，或立或坐，思考着。人們在慶祝什麼呢?他們都成了某個籌備委員會成員，時刻期待着某個大人物的演說。上帝不過是今天的輪值主席，而韋伯斯特纔是他的演說家。對於那些強烈地、正確地讓我感興趣的事物，我喜愛估量它們的重量，解決它們，讓它們吸引—決不想放在秤桿上，嘗試減輕重量—不妄加推測任何事情，而是完全根據其實際情況來解決;在那條我能走的必經之路上繼續前行。在這條路上，我可以戰勝任何力量。在擁有堅實穩固的基礎之前，就開始着手建造起一座拱門，我不會因爲這樣的行爲，感到絲毫滿足。所有地方的底部都是結實的。我們從書中得知這樣一個故事:一個旅行者問一個男孩，前方的這塊沼澤底部是不是堅固。男孩回答道:“是堅固的。”可是旅行者沒走多遠，他的馬便深陷沼澤，不一會兒就到了馬的腰部，他對男孩說，“我本以爲你說的是這塊沼澤底部是堅固的……”“是堅固的啊，”男孩說道，“可是你還沒有觸到它的底部一半深呢。”社會的泥沼和流沙也是這個道理，但是隻有少年老成的人才知曉這一點。只有在一些少有的巧合中，人們的所想、所言、所爲纔是正確的。有一些人愚蠢地只知道是將釘子釘入板條和灰泥中，我可不想與這樣的人爲伍;要是那麼做，我會徹夜難眠。給我一把錘子，讓我感受一下釘板條的感覺。不要依靠油灰狀的黏性材料。釘入一隻釘子，就釘得結結實實，就算是在半夜醒來，一想到自己的工作，你也會心滿意足—即便請來繆斯女神，你對這件工作也沒有愧疚。這麼做，而且只有這麼做，上帝纔會伸出援助之手。釘入的每顆釘子，都應像宇宙機器中的鉚釘一樣固定，你的工作才能繼續下去。
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices. I thought that there was no need of ice to freeze them. They talked to me of the age of the wine and the fame of the vintage; but I thought of an older, a newer,and purer wine，of a more glorious vintage，which they had not got, and could not buy. The style, the house and grounds and "entertainment" pass for nothing with me. I called on the king, but he made me wait in his hall, and conducted like a man incapacitated for hospitality. There was a man in my neighborhood who lived in a hollow tree. His manners were truly regal. I should have done better had I called on him.
我不在乎愛、金錢、名譽，我只要真理。我坐在擺滿佳餚美酒的桌旁，身邊有謅媚的侍從，但是卻少了真誠和誓言。我餓着肚子轉身離開這冷漠的餐桌。這種盛情如冰一樣冰冷，我想無需再用冰塊來凍結它們。他們告訴我葡萄美酒的年份和產地的歷史，這讓我想起了一種更年深月久且更新更純、更光榮的佳釀，可他們手上沒有，也無法買到。我把他們的風格、衰宅、庭園和“娛樂”當做草芥。我去拜見國王，他卻讓我在客廳等候，他的行爲如同喪失了好客能力似的。我的一個鄰居住在樹洞裏，他的舉止纔是真正的王者。我要是去拜訪他，待遇肯定會好得多。
英語經典美文心靈雞湯學習How to Grow Old
Bertrand Russell
如何慢慢變老
In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, which，at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died young，I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at the age of sixty-seven，but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off. A great grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon，lived to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her maternal grandmother，after having nine children who survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she became a widow, devoted herself to woman's higher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College,and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. She used to relate how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She inquired the cause of his melancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. “Good gracious，”she exclaimed，“I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a dismal existence!”Madre snaturale,”he replied. But speaking as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep，so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of you future.
[英]伯特蘭·羅素
As regards health I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like，and sleep when I cannot keep awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.
與題目如何變老不同，本文真正的主旨是如何避免變老。這樣的話題對我這樣年紀的人來說，顯得更爲重要。要避免變老，我的第一個建議是:一定要小心冀冀地選擇自己的祖先。雖然我的雙親在年輕的時候就去世了，可假如算上其他先人，我選的祖先還是相當不錯的。確實，我的外祖父在67歲的時候便離開了人世，但是我的外祖母和祖父母三人都活了80多歲。時間更爲久遠一些的祖先當中，我只找到有一位沒有能夠安享
晚年的，他是死於一種目前已極爲少見的疾病，即被人砍了頭。我有一位曾祖母，她還是吉本的好友，整整活了92歲，並且直到離開世界前的最後一天，她在後代的心目中都很有威嚴。我的外祖母，養活了9個孩子，還有一個幼年時去世的孩子，並且有過多次小產。丈夫去世之後，她便馬上致力於女子高等教育事業。她是格頓學院的奠基人之一，併爲打開女性通向醫學殿堂的大門作出了不懈的努力。她常常講起在意大利的經歷。她曾遇見一位年長的紳士，看上去悶悶不樂。於是她就問這位紳士爲什麼悲傷，他回答說他不久前剛和兩個孫子輩的孩子永別了。“天啊!”她驚叫道，“我有72個孫子孫女，要是每當他們中的某個死去，我都十分悲傷的話，那我的生活得多麼悲慘啊!”這位紳士滿臉驚訝地用意大利語說道:“多麼不尋常的母親啊。”但是，作爲那72個子孫中的一員，我贊同她的理念。剛過80歲，她發現自己很難入睡，於是她慢慢地養成了習慣，從子夜時分到凌晨三點開始閱讀科普文章。我不相信她會有時間注意到自己已經正慢慢變老。我認爲，這樣的行爲方式正是永駐青春的奧妙所在。如果你有廣泛而濃厚的興趣，而且能積極踊躍地參加一些活動。自己已經活了多少年，這些具體的數字根本沒有必要多加考慮，更無需爲剩下的時日多少而擔心。
Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do so live in memories, in regress for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. One's thoughts must be directed to the future and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy: one's own past is gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one's emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one's mind keener. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true.
關於身體健康，我沒有什麼值得借鑑的事情，因爲我很少生病。我想吃就吃，想喝就喝，困了就睡。我做事情的原則是:不會因爲對健康有益纔去做。在實際生活中，我所喜歡做的率情大多是有益的。
The other thug to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives，and you continue to be as interested in them as you were when they were young，you are likely to become a burden to them，unless they are unusually callous.I do not mean that one should be without interest in them，but one’s interest should be contemplative and，if possible，philanthropic，but not unduly emotional. Animals become indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves，but human beings，owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.
從心理學上看，有兩種危險是值得步入老年的人預防的。其一是思念過去而不能自拔，生活在回憶裏，深切地留戀美好的往事，爲朋友的去世悲愉不已，這樣做什麼好處也沒有。一個人的心思一定要放在未來，放在力所能及的事情上。這往往很難做到，隨着年歲的增長，人的經歷會在心中佔據越來越重的地位，人們很容易想到，自己現在的情感不比先前熱烈，先前的思維要比現在敏捷得多。如果這是事實的話，你就必須放棄這一念頭，可如果真的忘掉了，這又不是事實了。
I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere that long experience is really fruitful，and it is in this sphere that the wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is no use telling grown-up children not to make mistakes，both because they will not believe you，and because mistakes are an essential part of if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests，you may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with you children and grandchildren. In that case you must realize that while you can still render them material services，such as making them an allowance or knitting them jumpers，you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
另一點就是要避免希望可以從青年人的身上得到他們生命的活力。當孩子們一個個變成大人之後，他們想擁有自己的生活。如果你還是像他們小時候那樣，一直照顧他們，你很可能會成爲他們的負擔，除非他們一直是麻木不仁。我的意思並不是說人們應該對自己的成年子女漠不關心，而是在心裏關心就足夠了。如果條件允許的話，在物質方面給他們一些資助，而不應太注重感情。一旦動物幼崽能夠獨立生活了，動物就會立刻把它們扔到一邊，而人類卻因爲撫育嬰兒時間較長，最後發現很難做到這樣。
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows，and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abjectt and ignoble. The best way to overcome it-so at least it seems to me-is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal，until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede，and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river-small at first,narrowly contained}within its banks，and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider,the banks recede，the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea，and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death，since the things he cares for will continue, And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work,knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.
我覺得，在一些適當的活動中，具有強烈的、非個人的興趣，這樣的成功的老年生活是最安逸的。恰恰在這一領域，豐富的經驗纔是真正有效果的;也剛好在這一領域，由經驗而來的智慧纔可以靈活運用而又不讓旁人感到壓迫。不停地囑咐已經成年的子女別犯錯誤，那根本沒有用，一來因爲他們不再信任你的話，二來因爲犯錯誤是教育的必經之路。可是，如果你無法對在意的事情不摻雜個人情感，你可能就會發現，假如自己對兒孫們不操心的話，生活就會空虛無趣。在這種情況下，你一定要認識到，即便你能在物質上給予他們幫助，比如不時給他們錢用來補貼家用或爲他們編織毛衣，但是你別期盼他們會喜歡和你在一起。
有些老人因爲害怕死亡，而惶惶不可終日。年輕人有這種情緒還講得過去，他們有理由擔心自己將來會戰死殺場。可一旦意識到自己被騙，已經失去了生活中最爲美好的東西，他們的憤憤不平倒是情有可原，也無可指責。可是，一個老人已經品嚐過了人生的酸甜苦辣，已經達到了自己事業的高峯，如果仍然害怕死亡那就是可鄙可恥的事情了。戰勝這種懼怕心理的最好的辦法—起碼在我看來是—是逐漸拓展自己的興趣，讓它更爲寬泛一些，更爲脫離個人感情色彩，直到自我的束縛慢慢消去，直到你的私人生活與塵世的生活越發和諧。個人的生存應該如同一條河流—源頭是一股溪流，兩岸之間狹隘無比，波濤奔涌地衝擊岩石，越過瀑布，河岸朝兩邊慢慢隱退，河面變得越來越寬，河水的流動更爲平緩，最終靜靜地融入大海。河水與海水毫無痛楚地合二爲一成爲一體，忘卻彼此。用這種觀點來對待生活的老人就不會害怕死亡，因爲他心中所牽掛的事情仍將發展。進一步來說，假如伴隨着精力的每況愈下，精神日趨惶惶不安，安樂歸西的想法也不失爲一種好的選擇。我希望工作精力旺盛的時候，便去往極樂世界，因爲我清楚，我已經不能再工作，別人會將我未完成的事業進行下去。一想到自己所能做的一切，我便心滿意足了。
