学习啦>学习英语>英语阅读>英语美文欣赏>

英语励志美文精华双语欣赏

韦彦分享

  从地上站起来,擦干脸,像励志歌曲里面写到的水手那样咬着牙低着头上了岸,并且以活着的姿态。下面小编整理了英语励志美文精华双语,希望大家喜欢!

  英语励志美文精华双语摘抄

  Keep the Innocent Eye 保持眼睛的纯真

  By Sir Hugh Casson

  When I Accepted the invitation to join in "This I Believe," it was not-goodness knows-because I felt I had anything profound to contribute. I regarded it-selfishly, perhaps-as a chance to get my own ideas straight. I started, because it seemed simplest that way, with my own profession.

  The signposts I try to follow as an architect are these: to keep the innocent eye with which we are all born, and therefore always to be astonished; to respect the scholar but not the style snob; to like what I like without humbug, but also to train my eye and mind so that I can say why I like it; to use my head but not to be frightened to listen to my heart (for there are some things which can be learned only through emotion); finally, to develop to the best of my ability the best that lies within me.

  But what, you may say, about the really big problems of life- Religion? Politics? World Affairs? Well, to be honest, these great problems do not weigh heavily upon my mind. I have always cared more for the small simplicities of life-family affection, loyalty of friends, joy in creative work.

  Religion? Well, when challenged I describe myself as "Church of England," and as a child I went regularly to church. But today, though I respect churchgoing as an act of piety and enjoy its sidelines, so to speak, the music and the architecture, it holds no significance for me.

  Perhaps, I don't know, it is the atmosphere of death in which religion is so steeped that has discouraged me-the graveyards, the parsonical voice, the thin damp smell of stone. Even today a "holy" face conjures up not saintliness but moroseness. So, most of what I learned of Christian morality I think I really learned indirectly at home and from friends.

  World Affairs? I wonder if some of you remember a famous prewar cartoon. It depicted a crocodile emerging from a peace conference and announcing to a huge flock of sheep (labeled "People of the World"), "I am so sorry we have failed. We have been unable to restrain your warlike ambitions." Frankly, I feel at home with those sheep-mild, benevolent, rather apprehensive creatures, acting together by instinct and of course very, very woolly.

  But I have learned too, I think, that there is still no force, not even Christianity, so strong as patriotism; that the instinctive wisdom with which we all act in moments of crisis-that queer code of conduct which is understood by all but never formulated-is a better guide than any panel of professors; and finally that it is the inferiority complex, usually the result of an unhappy or unlucky home, which is at the bottom of nearly all our troubles.

  Is the solution, then, no more than to see that every child has a happy home? I'm not sure that it isn't. Children are nearer truth than we are. They have the innocent eye.

  If you think that such a philosophy of life is superficial or tiresomely homespun or irresponsible, I will remind you in reply that the title of this series is "This I Believe”-not "This I ought to believe," nor even "This I would like to believe”-but, "This I Believe."

  英语励志美文精华双语鉴赏

  .Causes Are People

  事业即人

  by Susan Parker Cobbs

  苏珊·科布斯

  IT HAS NOT been easy for me to meet this assignment. In the first place, I am not a very articulate person, and then one has so many beliefs, changing and fragmented and transitory beliefs---besides the ones most central to our lives. I have tried hard to pull out and put into words my most central beliefs.

  完成这一任务对我并非易事。首先,我是个不善言辞的人,其次,除了生活中最主要的信仰之外,一个人还有如此多的信仰,变化的、零星的和短暂的信仰。

  I hope that what I say won’t sound either too simple or too pious.

  我努力将最主要的信仰说出来,并希望我的话听起来不会太简单,或虔诚过度。

  I know that it is my deep and fixed conviction that man has within him the force of good and the power to translate force into life.

  我知道我毫不动摇地深信人心中有一种善的力量,并且能在生活中行善。

  For me, this means that a pattern of life that makes personal relationships more important. A pattern that makes more beautiful and attractive the personal virtues: courage, humility, selflessness and love.

  在我看来,这意味着一种使人际关系更为重要的生活方式,一种使人们的美德,即勇气、谦恭、无私和爱更美丽、更吸引人的方式。

  I used to smile at my mother because the tears came so readily to her eyes when she heard or read of some incident that called out these virtues. I don’t smile any more because I find I have become more and more responsive in the same inconvenient way to the same kind of story.

  我过去常常笑话母亲一听说或读到反映这些美德的某件事时眼泪就夺眶而出,如今我不再笑话她了,因为我发现自己对同类事件的反应越来越强烈,表达方式同样不合时宜。

  And so I believe that I both can and must work to achieve the good that is in me. The words of Socrates keep coming back to me: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

  因此,我相信我能够也必须行动起来表现善良的心地。我常常想起苏格拉底的话:“未经审视的生活是不值得过的。”

  By examination we can discover what is our good and we can realize that knowledge of good means its achievement. I know that such self-examination has never been easy---Plato maintained that it was soul’s central search. It seems to me peculiarly difficult now. In a period of such rapid material expansion and such wide spread conflicts, black and white have become gray and will not easily separate.

  通过审视,我们能够发现自己的善良是什么,能够认识到懂得了善良就意味着它的成就。我知道这样的自省决非容易,柏拉图认为这是灵魂永世的追求,在我看来现在自省尤为不易,因为在这样一个物欲急剧膨胀、冲突四起的时期,黑白已经混淆,不易辨别了。

  There is a belief which follows this. If I have the potential of the good life within me and compulsion to express it, then it is a power and compulsion common to all men. What I must have for myself to conduct my search, all men must have: freedom of choice, faith in the power and the beneficent qualities of truth.

  由此产生另一种信仰,如果我内心具备行善一生的潜力并有表现它的冲动,那么这种潜力和冲动人皆有之。我在追求时自身必须具备的条件人人皆须拥有:能自由选择,相信这种潜力,相信真理能造福于人类。

  What frightens me most today is the denial of these rights, because this can only come from the denial of what seems to me the essential nature of man. For if my conviction holds, man is more important than anything he has created and our great task is to bring back again into a subordinate position the monstrous superstructures of our society.

  今天最让我害怕的是否认这些权利,因为否认这些权利只能源自否认我所理解的基本人性。如果我的信念站得住脚,人就比他创造的任何东西都重要,我们的伟大职责就是将社会庞大的上层建筑重置于附属地位。

  I hope this way of reducing our problems to the human equation is not simple an evasion of them. I don’t believe it is. For most of us it is the area in which we can work : the human area---with ourselves, with the people we touch, and through these two by vicarious understanding, with mankind. I believe this is the safest starting point.

  我希望以这种方式将我们的问题归结为人类共同的问题不是在逃避它们。我不认为这是一种逃避,因为对我们大多数人而言,它是我们唯一可以活动的领域:人类的领域—与我们自己合作,与我们接触的人合作,并通过了解这两者与整个人类合作,我相信这是最可靠的起点。

  I watch young people these days wrestling with our mighty problems. They are much more concerned with them and involved in them than my generation of students ever was.

  这些日子我看见年轻人努力解决我们存在的重大问题,他们比我们那一代的学生更关注这些问题,更积极地参与。他们深刻地意识到“平等”和“公正”两词的内涵。

  They are deeply aware of the words “quality” and “justice” In their great desire to right wrong they are prone to forget that causes are people, that nothing matters more than people. They need to add to their crusades the warmer and more affecting virtues of compassion and love. And here again come those personal virtues that bring tears to the eyes.

  他们热望匡正人世,却容易忘记事业即人,没有什么比人更重要。他们需要在这些运动中注人同情和爱等更感人的品德。这里再次出现了那些让人泪眼模糊的美德。

  One further word, I believe that the power of good within us is real and comes there from a source outside and beyond ourselves. Otherwise, I could not put my trust so firmly in it.

  还有一句话,我相信我们善心的力量是真实的,它来自我们身外,否则我无法如此坚定地信仰它。

  英语励志美文精华双语赏析

  A Game of Cards

  玩牌游戏

  By Norman Cousins

  诺曼·卡曾斯

  Ever since I was old enough to read books on philosophy, I have been intrigued by the discussions on the nature of man. The philosophers have been debating for years about whether man is primarily good or primarily evil, whether he is primarily altruistic or selfish, cooperative or combative, gregarious or self-centered, whether he enjoys free will or whether everything is predetermined.

  自从能够看懂哲学书开始,有关人性的讨论就激起了我浓厚的兴趣。人性是善还是恶、是利他还是利己、是合作还是竞争、是群居还是以自我为中心、是相信自由意志还是相信宿命,这些是哲学家们多少年来一直争论不休的话题。

  As far back as the Socratic dialogues in Plato, and even before that, man has been baffled about himself. He knows he is capable of great and noble deeds, but then he is oppressed by the evidence of great wrongdoing.

  人类一直对自身感到困惑,这可以追溯到柏拉图与苏格拉底的对活,甚至更早时期。人类知道自己拥有做出伟大而高尚的事情的能力,然而却又被犯下大罪的证据所压迫。

  And so he wonders. I don’t presume to be able to resolve the contradictions. In fact, I don’t think we have to. It seems to me that the debate over good and evil in man, over free will and determinism, and over all the other contradictions—it seems to me that this debate is a futile one.

  因此,他困惑不已。对于这种矛盾是否能够解决,我并不敢断言。然而,事实上,人们没有必要非要化解这种矛盾。人是两面性的动物,因此,我认为争论人性善或恶、意志自由或宿命以及其他一切矛盾都是徒劳无益的。

  For man is a creature of dualism. He is both good and evil, both altruistic and selfish. He enjoys free will to the extent that he can make decisions in life, but he can’t change his chemistry or his relatives or his physical endowments—all of which were determined for him at birth.

  人既有善良的一面,也有邪恶的一面;既有利他的一面,也有利己的一面。人们享受着能够在生活中做出决定的自由意志,然而却无法改变与生俱来的基因、亲属或体征。

  And rather than speculate over which side of him is dominant, he might do well to consider what the contradictions and circumstances are that tend to bring out the good or evil, that enable him to be a nobler and responsible member of the human race.

  与其思索哪一方面主导着人性,还不如思索人之所以善良或邪恶的矛盾和环境,从而让人成为人类群体中具有高尚品质和责任感的人。

  And so far as free will and determinism are concerned, something I heard in India on a recent visit might be worth passing along. Free will and determinism, I was told, are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism. The way you play your hand represent free will.

  在近期访问次大陆期间,我在印度听到了一些事情,它们在自由意志和宿命论方面的价值是值得一提的。当地人告诉我,自由意志和宿命论就像玩纸牌游戏,宿命论就是发牌的手,而自由意志就是打牌的方式。

  Now where does all this leave us? It seems to me that we ought to attempt to bring about and safeguard those conditions that tend to develop the best in man. We know, for example, that the existence of fear and man’s inability to cope with fear bring about the worst in him.

  而今,这一切把我们带到了什么地方?我认为,那些能够培养人类最优秀品质的环境,是我们应该努力去创造和保护的。例如,我们知道恐惧感和无法克服恐惧的意识能够导致人性产生最邪恶的东西

  We know that what is true of man on a small scale can be true of society on a large scale. And today the conditions of fear in the world are, I’m afraid, affecting men everywhere.

  我们同样知道,个人的真实状况经过放大就会成为社会的真实状况。如今,世界各个地方的人仍然遭受着恐惧因素的影响。

  More than twenty-three hundred years ago, the Greek world, which had attained tremendous heights of creative intelligence and achievement, disintegrated under the pressure of fear. Today, too, if we read the signs correctly, there is fear everywhere.

  恐惧瓦解了希腊文明,然而在两千三百多年前,它具有创造性的智慧和成就已经达到了非凡的高度。同样,如果我在环球旅行时的所见不虚的话

  There is fear that the human race has exhausted its margin for error and that we are sliding into another great conflict that will cancel out thousands of years of human progress. And people are fearful because they don’t want to lose the things that are more important than peace itself—moral, democratic, and spiritual values.

  人类正在滑向一场大战,这场战争将会把人类数千年取得的进步毁之一旦,这是由人类犯错底线被突破而导致的恐惧所引起的。这是因为,对于人类而言,道德、民主和精神比和平更重要。

  The problem confronting us today is far more serious than the destiny of any political system or even of any nation.

  人类的命运是我们今天所面临的问题,这比任何政治体制和任何民族的命运更为重要。

  The problem is the destiny of man: first, whether we can make this planet safe for man; second, whether we can make it fit for man.

  首先,我们是否能够把地球建人类的安全之所;其次,我们是否能够把地球建成适宜人类居住的地方。

  This I believe—that man today has all the resources to shatter his fears and go on to the greatest golden age in history, an age which will provide the conditions for human growth and for the development of the good that resides within man, whether in his individual or his collective being.

  我相信,对于消除恐惧并走向历史上最伟大的黄金时代,人类拥有各种各样的办法。不管人是作为个体还是人类群体的一员,这个时代都将会为人类的进步和善良本性的形成提供条迹然后,人类只需要理性地调动智慧和良知,就可以运用这些办法了。真理渗透在我们的生活中。站在海岸上,观看颠簸于大海之上的船帆,是一种乐趣;站在城堡垛口,观看激战中的战场,也是一种乐趣;

  And he has only to mobilize his rational intelligence and his conscience to put these resources to work.

  然而,什么也比不上站在真理的前哨,洞察山谷中的谬误、彷徨、迷雾与风暴,这更令人欢欣。

    1502114