5 We're Just Beginning

Charles F. Kettering

“We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite...”

I do not know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone.

We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.

I want the future to be better than the past. I don't want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of our lives.

The past is gone and static . Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our business, if we only recognize them. We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.

难词释义

hazy [ˈheɪzi] adj. 朦胧的；模糊的

reap [riːp] v. 收获

static [ˈstætɪk] adj. 静止的；不变的

一切才刚刚开始

查尔斯·F.凯特灵

“我们正在读一本书的第一章的第一句，而这本书的页数是无限的……”

我不知道这句话是谁写的，可我一直很喜欢这句话，它提醒我们未来是由我们自己创造的。我们可以把神秘、模糊不清的未来塑造成我们想象中的任何模样，犹如雕刻家将未成形的石头刻成雕像。

我们每个人都像是农夫。撒下良种将有丰收，播下劣种或生满野草便将毁去收成。没有耕耘则会一无所获。

我希望未来比过去更加美好，希望未来不会沾染过去的错误与过失。我们都应举目向前，因为我们的余生要用未来书写。

往昔已逝，静如止水；我们无法再去改变。而前方的未来正生机勃勃；我们所做的每一件事都将会影响到它。只要我们认识到这些，无论是在家庭中还是在工作上，每天我们的面前都会展现出新的天地。在人类致力开拓的每一片领域里，我们正站在进步的起跑线上。

6 True Nobility

Ernest Hemingway

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 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.

难词释义

bereavement [bɪˈriːvmənt] n. 丧失亲人；丧亲之痛

extravagance [ɪkˈstrævəgəns] n. 奢侈；挥霍；铺张浪费

repentance [rɪˈpentəns] n. 后悔；懊悔；忏悔

真正的高贵

欧内斯特·海明威

在风平浪静的海面上，每一个人都可以成为领航员。

但是假如只有阳光而没有阴影，只有欢乐而没有痛苦，那就全然不是人生。就拿最幸福的人来说吧——他们的命运是一团纠缠的纱线。丧亲之痛与天赐福祉接踵而至，让我们悲欢交替。甚至连死亡本身都让人生更为可爱。人们在生命的庄严时刻，在哀伤和丧亲的阴影之下，最接近真实的自我。

在生活或事业的各种事务之中，才智的效用远不如性格，头脑的效用远不如心性，天资远不如由判断力所约束的自制、耐心与教养。

我一向认为，内心开始变得更为认真的人，他外在的生活会开始变得更为简朴。在一个奢侈浪费的时代，但愿我能够向世人表明：人类真正的需求是多么的稀少。

反思自己的过错，直至不重蹈覆辙才是真正的悔悟。比他人优越并无任何高贵之处，真正的高贵在于超越过去的自我。