英語勵志美文精華賞析
理義以養其心，則雖老而神明不衰。苟爲不然，則昏於豢養，敗於戕賊，未老而志衰矣。勵志之士，可不戒諸。下面小編整理了英語勵志美文精華，希望大家喜歡!
A New Look from Borrowed Time By Ralph Richmond
第二次生命的啓示 拉爾夫.里士滿
Just ten years ago, I sat across the desk from a doctor with a stethoscope. “Yes,” he said, “there is a lesion in the left, upper lobe. You have a moderately advanced case…” I listened, stunned, as he continued, “You’ll have to give up work at once and go to bed. Later on, we’ll see.” He gave me no assurances.
十年前的一天，我坐在一名手持聽診器的醫生對面。“你的左肺葉上部確實有一處壞損，而且病情正在惡化”——聽到這裏，我整個人一下懵了。“你必須停止工作臥牀休息，有待觀察。”醫生對我的病情也是不置可否。
Feeling like a man who in mid-career has suddenly been placed under sentence of death with an indefinite reprieve, I left the doctor’s office, walked over to the park, and sat down on a bench, perhaps, as I then told myself, for the last time. I needed to think. In the next three days, I cleared up my affairs; then I went home, got into bed, and set my watch to tick off not the minutes, but the months. two and a half years and many dashed hopes later, I left my bed and began the long climb back. It was another year before I made it.
就這樣，事業方面方興未艾的我彷彿突然被人判了死刑，卻說不準何時執刑。我離開醫生的辦公室，來到公園的長椅上坐下。這也許是最後一次來這兒了，我對自己說。我真得好好整理一下思緒。接下來的三天我把手頭的事務全部處理完畢。我回到家，躺到牀上，然後把手錶從顯示分鐘改爲顯示月份。兩年半的時間過去了，在無數次的失望之後，我終於可以離開病牀，艱難地向從前的生活狀態迴歸。一年之後，我做到了。
I speak to this experience because these years that past so slowly taught me what to value and what to believe. They said to me: Take time, before time takes you. I realize now that this world I’m living in is not my oyster to be opened but my opportunity to be grasped. Each day, to me, is a precious entity. The sun comes up and presents me with 24 brand new, wonderful hours—not to pass, but to fill.
我之所以談起這段經歷，是因爲那段度日如年的歲月讓我懂得應該珍惜什麼，信仰什麼。那段歲月讓我明白一個道理：牢牢抓住時間，而不是讓時間將你套牢。現在我終於明白，我生活着的這個世界不是等待我去打開的一扇牡蠣，而是需要我去抓住的一個機會。每一天我都視若珍寶，每一輪太陽帶給我的嶄新的二十四小時都鮮活而精彩，我絕不可將其虛度。
I’ve learned to appreciate those little, all-important things I never thought I had the time to notice before: the play of light on running water, the music of the wind in my favorite pine tree. I seem now to see and hear and feel with some of the recovered freshness of childhood. How well, for instance, I recall the touch of the springy earth under my feet the day I first stepped upon it after the years in bed. It was almost more than I could bear. It was like regaining one’s citizenship in a world one had nearly lost.
從前，我終日忙碌，無暇顧及生活中某些重要的細節，諸如水波上的光影，松林間的風吟——現在，我終於學會去欣賞它們的美好。如今，我彷彿重返童年，又覺得自己所見所聞所感的一切都那麼新鮮。當我臥牀數年後重新將雙腳踏在大地上的那一刻，腳下那久違了的鬆軟土壤讓我激動得情難自抑，彷彿重新擁有我差一點就失去的世界。
Frequently, I sit back and say to myself, Let me make note of this moment I’m living right now, because in it I’m well, happy, hard at work doing what I like best to do. It won’t always be like this, so while it is I’ll make the most of it—and afterwards, I remember—and be grateful. All this, I owe to that long time spent on the sidelines of life. Wiser people come to this awareness without having to acquire it the hard way. But I wasn’t wise enough. I’m wiser now, a little, and happier.
我現在時常舒舒服服地坐着，提醒自己要記住當下的每分每秒，因爲現在的我健康、快樂，能努力做自己最愛做的工作。這一切如此美好，卻終將消逝，在如此美好的生活消逝之前，我一定要倍加珍惜。在它逝去之後，我會記得曾經擁有的美好，並心存感激。這一切改變都得益於我在生命邊緣徘徊的那幾年。智者無需被逼到如此境地也能明白這些道理——可惜我從前太愚鈍。現在的我比從前多了幾分睿智，我也因此更加快樂。
“Look thy last on all things lovely, every hour.” With these words, Walter de la Mare sums up for me my philosophy and my belief. God made this world—in spite of what man now and then tries to do to unmake it—a dwelling place of beauty and wonder, and He filled it with more goodness than most of us suspect. And so I say to myself, Should I not pretty often take time to absorb the beauty and the wonder, to contribute a least a little to the goodness? And should I not then, in my heart, give thanks? Truly, I do. This I believe.
英國詩人沃爾特.德拉.梅爾曾說過：“時刻記住，最後看一眼所有美好的事物!”這句詩正好總結了我的人生哲學與信仰。上帝創造的這個世界——這個人類時常試圖毀滅的世界——是個美麗奇妙的家園。這裏充滿了上帝所賜予的美好事物，超過我們大多數人的想象。我於是常常自問，難道自己不應該去細細品味這些美麗與奇蹟，盡綿薄之力去創造世間的美好嗎?難道我不應心存感激嗎?我確實應該——這就是我的信仰。
英語勵志美文精華鑑賞Man Is Like a Fruit Tree by Elmer H. Bobst
人像一棵果樹 埃爾默.霍姆斯.博布斯特
Once, while taking my boat down the inland waterway to Florida, I decided to tie up at Georgetown, South Carolina, for the night and visit with an old friend. As we approached the Esso dock, I saw him through my binoculars standing there awaiting us. Tall and straight as an arrow he stood, facing a cold, penetrating wind - truly a picture of a sturdy man, even though in his eighties. Yes, the man was our elder statesman, Bernard Baruch.
有一次，我沿着內河獨自駕船前往佛羅里達州。到達南卡洛來納的喬治敦時，我決定靠岸過夜，順便去拜訪一位老朋友。船一進埃鬆港，我就從望遠鏡中看到他站在那裏等我們。朋友高而挺拔的身影像一支箭一樣，站立在刺骨的寒風中，簡直一幅健壯男子漢的畫面，雖然畫面中人已年過八旬。沒錯，他就是我們的老一輩政治家，伯納德.巴魯克。
He loaded us into his station wagon and we were off to his famous Hobcaw Barony for dinner. We sat and talked in the great living room where many notables and statesmen, including Roosevelt and churchill, have sat and taken their cues. In his eighty-second year, still a human dynamo, Mr. Baruch talked not of the past but of present problems and the future, deploring our ignorance of history, economics and psychology. His only reference to the past was to tell me, with the wonderful sparkle in his eyes, that he was only able to get eight quail out of the ten shots the day before. What is the secret of this great man's value to the world? The answer is his insatiable desire to keep being productive.
伯納德.巴魯克的旅行轎車載着我們，徑直駛向他那著名的霍布考大莊園用餐。我們就座談話的大客廳，曾有包括羅斯福和丘吉爾在內的許多貴客與政治家光臨，與他交談，傾聽他的意見。如今，巴魯克先生雖已82歲，卻依然活力充沛。他對過去緘口不提，只談論現在與將來的問題，併爲我們對歷史學、經濟學和心理學知識的匱乏而深表遺憾。他告訴我，昨天他只用10發子彈就射中了8只鵪鶉，這也是他提到的唯一一件“往事”。說話時，他的雙眼閃爍着令人愉快的光芒。這位偉大的人物對世界充滿價值的奧祕何在?答案就是他對成就一如既往的追求。
Another friend of mine, the head of one of our largest corporations, a great steel company, is approaching his middle seventies, and he is still a great leader. He, too, never talks of the past. Instead, he tackles the problems of each day in his stride, brims with plans for the future and, incidentally, shoots in the low seventies on any golf course. He is a happy man because he is productive.
我的另一位朋友領導着一家最大的公司——一個大鋼鐵公司。年近75歲的他，依然是位優秀的領導者。他也從不談及往昔，而是遊刃有餘地處理着每天的問題，頭腦中想的滿是對未來的計劃。並且值得一提的是，70多歲的他，還會不時打打高爾夫球。他是個幸福的人，因爲他有所成就。
Two of the hardest things to accomplish in this world are to acquire wealth by honest effort and, having gained it, to learn how to use it properly. Recently, I walked into the locker room of a rather well-known golf club after finishing a round. It was in the late afternoon and most of the members had left for their homes. But a half dozen or so men past middle age were still seated at tables, talking aimlessly and drinking more than was good for them. These same men can be found there day after day, strangely enough, each one of these men had been a man of affairs and wealth, successful in business and respected in the community. If material prosperity were the chief requisites for happiness, then each one should have been happy. Yet, it seemed to me, something very important was missing, else there would not have been the constant effort to escape the realities of life through Scotch and soda. They knew, each one of them, that their productivity had ceased. When a fruit tree ceases to bear its fruit, it is dying. And it is even so with man.
人生在世最難完成的兩件事就是：用誠實的努力獲得財富，以及擁有財富後，學會如何正確地運用。最近，在一個相當知名的高爾夫俱樂部，我打完一輪球后走進衣帽間。當時已近黃昏，多數俱樂部成員都已經回家。然而，六七位年過中旬的人依然坐在桌邊，漫無目的地閒聊着，喝得爛醉如泥。他們每天都是如此。令我無比驚奇的是，他們個個都曾是家財萬貫，事業成功，在圈內備受尊敬的人。如果幸福的首要因素是物質財富，那麼他們每個人都應該很幸福。+但是，我想，對他們來說，某種非常重要的東西已經失去了，不然他們又怎會逃避現實，每天用蘇打水和蘇格蘭威士忌將自己灌得爛醉如泥?他們明白，自己已經無法突破現有的成就。一棵果樹若不再結果便會枯死，人也如此。
What is the answer to a long and happy existence in this world of ours? I think I found it long ago in a passage from the book of Genesis which caught my eyes while I was thumbing through my Bible. The words were few but they became indelibly impressed on my mind: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread."
如何才能幸福長壽地生活在世上呢?我想，很早之前在翻閱《聖經》時，我就找到了答案。《創世紀》中有一段話引起了我的注意，它雖然簡短，卻在我腦海中留下了深刻的印象：“要想餬口，必要汗流滿面。”
To me that has been a challenge from my earliest recollections. In fact, the battle of life, of existence, is a challenge to everyone. The immortal words of St. Paul, too, have been and always will be a great inspiration to me. At the end of the road I want to be able to feel that I have fought a good fight - have finished the course - I have kept the faith.
對我而言，它是最初的記憶，也是始終的挑戰。實際上，對每個人來說，人生之役，生存之役，都是一種挑戰。聖.保羅不朽的教誨，也一直並將永遠鼓舞着我。但願，在到達生命之途的終點時，我能夠認爲自己打了漂亮的一仗，不僅走完了人生的旅程，而且一如既往地堅持着自己的信仰。
英語勵志美文精華賞析Paying the Rent of Service By Lee Bristol
奉獻是支付租金 李·黑斯廷斯·布裏斯托爾
In a complex society and a complex civilization, the individual is inevitably confused much of the time. But I believe that the basic solution of all world and group problems must first be solved by the individual himself. Each one of us, whether we publicly admit it or not, has a deeply spiritual side. Not one of us can conceal it—scratch the surface and it’s always there. So first of all—and underlying all my credo—I believe in God and in an orderly universe.
人類生活在複雜的社會和文明中，總會不可避免地感到困惑。然而，我相信：人類自身才是解決全世界和羣體問題的根本，無論是否公開承認，每個人的內心深處都藏着一個精神家園。揭開覆蓋在它表層的東西，它永遠在那裏，沒有人能夠將其隱藏。我相信上帝和有序的宇宙，這是我所有信條中的第一個。
As a mortal, passing through this life for just a limited period of time, I believe that happiness is a truly basic objective—happiness for one’s self and, hopefully, happiness for others. It hasn’t taken too much living on my part to discover that real happiness, which sounds so selfish and so self-centered, is never achieved merely by selfish materialism—it can only have depth and real satisfaction if it is bound up with unselfishness—with a consideration for others. Service is the very essence of it. It has been said that “service is the rent we pay for our place on earth.” That kind of service brings the true happiness that we all seek.
生命是有限的，我相信，人類應該爲自己追求幸福，同時也爲他人帶去幸福，這纔是人類真正要追求的最基本的生活目標。回顧自己豐富的生活閱歷，我明白了，真正的幸福似乎是自私和以自我爲中心。但是，那些牟取私利、滿足個人物質需要的人永遠不會擁有真正的幸福。只有當幸福與無私、體諒他人聯繫在一起時，這種幸福纔會是有深度、真正令人滿意的幸福。幸福的本質是奉獻，這種奉獻帶來了我們所有人所追求的真正幸福。曾經有人說過這樣的話：“幸福是我們爲在地球上佔據的空間而支付的租金。”
The antithesis of all this is selfishness, which is outstandingly the greatest world-wide vice. It seems though all the world had the “gimmies,” selfishly grasping for power, and more and more, at national levels, with individuals selfishly struggling for material things at their own level.
自私自利是世界上最令人憎惡的惡行，它是一切幸福的對立面。世界的每一個角落似乎都存在着這種惡行，國家之間對於權利的貪婪追求，人與人之間爲了物質財富而進行的鬥爭。
Each one of us needs a sense of humor with its balancing factor of a sense of proportion. I believe a sense of humor brings poise and a start towards understanding.
每個人都需要一種幽默感和分寸感，我相信幽默感是理解的開端，能夠使人類沉着、冷靜。
My credo embraces a joyous approach for me toward my fellow man and for collective groups towards each other. I want none of that grim hellfire-and-brimstone stuff that flourished in the early days of our country—a religion of frightening fear of the hereafter. Why, even their old church pews were as uncomfortable as straitjackets! A joyous approach towards living even cheers you yourself—to say nothing of its warmth that eases the burdens of others.
我的信條是：同胞之間、羣體之間應該快樂地相處。我反對我國早期曾盛行的宣揚殘酷的地獄之火及戰火這樣的謬論，這讓人類對來世的信仰產生了巨大恐懼。爲什麼連教堂裏靠背椅的椅背都像件瘦小的外套，令人很不舒服!快樂地面對生活不但使自己感到高興，還能溫暖他人，減輕他人的生活負擔。
I believe that brotherhood can grow from this to help destroy forever the seeds of friction and injustice that stem from group minority prejudices.
我相信，幸福能夠產生兄弟情誼，有助於消除小羣體偏見產生的衝突和不公平的苗頭。
If only each one of us can develop a sound philosophy and work out a course of conduct as individuals, then I believe we can solve our world problems at the international level. Thomas Mann once gave this challenging definition: “War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.” With faith and good will in our hearts and with peace in our souls and minds, surely we can leave this world the better for our having lived in it.
只要每個人都能確立一個正確的哲學觀，制定出一套個人行爲規範，我相信我們能夠解決國際問題。托馬斯·曼曾經提出了這樣一條富有挑戰性的定義：“戰爭只是對和平解決問題方式的逃避。”只要心中有信仰，有良好的願望，只要思想和靈魂追求和平，我們就一定能夠在有生之年讓世界變得更加美好。
