艰辛的人生
The Strenuous Life
西奥多·罗斯福 / Theodore Roosevelt
西奥多·罗斯福（1858—1919），美国第26任总统、作家、探险家和军事家，毕业于哈佛大学，曾发表《勤奋地生活》演说，旨在针对19世纪末美国骄奢淫逸、贪图享乐之风盛行，藉此文以遏制当时的腐败现象，这篇《艰辛的人生》也反映了他这种反对怠惰安逸、崇尚奋斗人生的思想。
A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as an individual.
We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious efforts, the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past. A man can be free from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a writer or a general, whether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure, he shows he deserves his good fortune.
But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labor as a period, not of preparation, but of mere enjoyment, even though perhaps not of vicious enjoyment, he shows that he is simply a cumberer on the earth' s surface; and he surely unfits himself to hold his own place with his fellows, if the need to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life, and, above all, it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world.
As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
一种怠惰安逸的生活，一种仅仅是由于缺少追寻伟大事物的愿望或能力而导致的悠闲，这对国家与个人都是没有价值的。
我们不欣赏那种怯懦安逸的人。我们钦佩那种表现出奋力向上的人，那种永不冤枉邻人，能随时帮助朋友，但是也具有那些刚健的性质，足以在实际生活的严酷斗争中获取胜利的人。失败是艰难的，但是从不曾努力去争取成功，却更为糟糕。在人的一生中，任何的收获都要通过努力去得到。目前不用作任何的努力，只是意味着在过去有过努力的积蓄。一个人不必工作，除非他或他的祖先曾努力工作过，并取得了丰厚的收获。如果他能把换取到的此类的自由加以正确地运用，仍然做些实际的工作，尽管那些工作是属于另一类的，不论是作一名作家还是将军，不论是在政界还是在探险和冒险方面做些事情，都表明他没有辜负自己的好运。
但是，如果他将这段不需从事实际工作的自由时期，不用于准备，而仅仅是用于享乐，尽管他所从事的或许并非邪恶的享乐，那就表明了他只是地球表面上的一个赘疣，而且他肯定无法在同僚之中维持自己的地位，如果那种需要再度出现的话。安逸的生活终究不是一种令人很满意的生活，而且，最主要的是，过那种生活的人最终肯定没有能力担当起世上之重任。
于个人如此，对国家也是这样。有人说一个没有历史的国家是得天独厚的，这是卑鄙的谎言。一种得天独厚的优越感来源于一个国家具有光荣的历史。冒险去从事伟大的事业，赢得光荣的胜利，即使其中掺杂着失败，那也远胜于与那些既没有享受多大快乐也没有遭受多大痛苦的平庸之辈为伍，因为他们生活在一个既享受不到胜利也遭遇不到失败的灰暗境界里。
真实的高贵
True Nobility
欧内斯特·海明威 / Ernest Hemingway
欧内斯特·海明威（1899—1961），20世纪美国著名小说家，生于伊利诺伊州芝加哥市郊的橡树园附近。他的作品风格独具魅力，在世界范围内产生了广泛影响。1926年发表的《太阳照样升起》是海明威获得声誉的第一部长篇小说，并成为“迷惘的一代”的代表作品。“一战”给海明威留下了难以愈合的心灵创伤，为他创作举世名作《永别了，武器》提供了素材。1952年，中篇小说《老人与海》出版，轰动文坛，并使他获得了诺贝尔文学奖。
In a calm sea every man is a pilot.
But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest—it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.
In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.
I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.
To regret one' s errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance.
There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
风平浪静的大海上，每个人都是领航员。
但是，只有阳光而无阴影，只有欢乐而无痛苦，那就不是人生。以最幸福的人的生活为例——它是一团纠缠在一起的麻线。丧亲之痛和幸福祝愿，彼此相接，使我们一会儿伤心一会儿高兴，甚至死亡本身也会使生命更加可亲。在人生的清醒时刻，在哀痛和伤心的阴影之下，人们与真实的自我最接近。
在人生或者职业的各种事务中，性格的作用比智力大得多，头脑的作用不如心情，天资不如由判断力所掌控的自制、耐心和纪律。
我始终相信，开始在内心生活得更严肃的人，也会在外表上开始生活得更朴素。在一个奢华浪费的年代，我希望能向世界表明，人类真正需要的东西是非常微小的。
悔恨自己的错误，而且力求不再重蹈覆辙，这才是真正的悔悟。优于别人，并不高贵，真正的高贵应该是优于过去的自己。
与书为伴
Companionship of Books
塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯 / Samuel Smiles
塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯（1812-1904），苏格兰作家，在1832年取得医师资格，不久便放弃行医，改行新闻工作，1838-1842年任《里兹时报》编?，1842-1866年从事铁路行政工作。其作品中最杰出的是《自己拯救自己》,《品格的力量》,《金钱与人生》以及《人生的职责》,作品中蕴含维多利亚时代的价值观，与其工作信条相互结合。
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 lived 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 love they have each for a 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.