優美英語散文10篇附譯文
想閱讀一些優美的英語散文來提高自己的英語閱讀水平嗎？下面是本站小編爲大家整理的優美英語散文10篇附譯文，希望大家喜歡!
Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart, there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.
When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.
優美英語散文譯文：青春
青春不是年華，而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹脣、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏的想象，炙熱的戀情;青春是生命的深泉在涌流。
青春氣貫長虹，勇銳蓋過怯弱，進取壓倒苟安。如此銳氣，二十後生而有之，六旬男子則更多見。年歲有加，並非垂老，理想丟棄，方墮暮年。
歲月悠悠，衰微只及肌膚;熱忱拋卻，頹廢必致靈魂。憂煩，惶恐，喪失自信，定使心靈扭曲，意氣如灰。
無論年屆花甲，擬或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，奇蹟之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一臺天線，只要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的信號，你就青春永駐，風華常存。 、
一旦天線下降，銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋，玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生，即使年方二十，實已垂垂老矣;然則只要樹起天線，捕捉樂觀信號，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。
優美英語散文：假如給我三天光明(節選)Three Days to See
All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”. But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.
Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
優美英語散文譯文：假如給我三天光明(節選)
我們都讀過震撼人心的故事，故事中的主人公只能再活一段很有限的時光，有時長達一年，有時卻短至一日。但我們總是想要知道，註定要離世人的會選擇如何度過自己最後的時光。當然，我說的是那些有選擇權利的自由人，而不是那些活動範圍受到嚴格限定的死囚。
這樣的故事讓我們思考，在類似的處境下，我們該做些什麼?作爲終有一死的人，在臨終前的幾個小時內我們應該做什麼事，經歷些什麼或做哪些聯想?回憶往昔，什麼使我們開心快樂?什麼又使我們悔恨不已?
有時我想，把每天都當作生命中的最後一天來邊，也不失爲一個極好的生活法則。這種態度會使人格外重視生命的價值。我們每天都應該以優雅的姿態，充沛的精力，抱着感恩之心來生活。但當時間以無休止的日，月和年在我們面前流逝時，我們卻常常沒有了這種子感覺。當然，也有人奉行“吃，喝，享受”的享樂主義信條，但絕大多數人還是會受到即將到來的死亡的懲罰。
在故事中，將死的主人公通常都在最後一刻因突降的幸運而獲救，但他的價值觀通常都會改變，他變得更加理解生命的意義及其永恆的精神價值。我們常常注意到，那些生活在或曾經生活在死亡陰影下的人無論做什麼都會感到幸福。
然而，我們中的大多數人都把生命看成是理所當然的。我們知道有一天我們必將面對死亡，但總認爲那一天還在遙遠的將來。當我們身強體健之時，死亡簡直不可想象，我們很少考慮到它。日子多得好像沒有盡頭。因此我們一味忙於瑣事，幾乎意識不到我們對待生活的冷漠態度。
我擔心同樣的冷漠也存在於我們對自己官能和意識的運用上。只有聾子才理解聽力的重要，只有盲人才明白視覺的可貴，這尤其適用於那些成年後才失去視力或聽力之苦的人很少充分利用這些寶貴的能力。他們的眼睛和耳朵模糊地感受着周圍的景物與聲音，心不在焉，也無所感激。這正好我們只有在失去後才懂得珍惜一樣，我們只有在生病後才意識到健康的可貴。
我經常想，如果每個人在年輕的時候都有幾天失時失聰，也不失爲一件幸事。黑暗將使他更加感激光明，寂靜將告訴他聲音的美妙。
優美英語散文： 以書爲伴(節選)Companionship of Books
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 live 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 mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ‘Love me, love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my 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.
A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters.
Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is really good.
Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see the as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.
The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which on still listens.
優美英語散文譯文：以書爲伴(節選)
通常看一個讀些什麼書就可知道他的爲人，就像看他同什麼人交往就可知道他的爲人一樣，因爲有人以人爲伴，也有人以書爲伴。無論是書友還是朋友，我們都應該以最好的爲伴。
好書就像是你最好的朋友。它始終不渝，過去如此，現在如此，將來也永遠不變。它是最有耐心，最令人愉悅的伴侶。在我們窮愁潦倒，臨危遭難時，它也不會拋棄我們，對我們總是一如既往地親切。在我們年輕時，好書陶冶我們的性情，增長我們的知識;到我們年老時，它又給我們以慰藉和勉勵。
人們常常因爲喜歡同一本書而結爲知已，就像有時兩個人因爲敬慕同一個人而成爲朋友一樣。有句古諺說道：“愛屋及屋。”其實“愛我及書”這句話蘊涵更多的哲理。書是更爲真誠而高尚的情誼紐帶。人們可以通過共同喜愛的作家溝通思想，交流感情，彼此息息相通，並與自己喜歡的作家思想相通，情感相融。
好書常如最精美的寶器，珍藏着人生的思想的精華，因爲人生的境界主要就在於其思想的境界。因此，最好的書是金玉良言和崇高思想的寶庫，這些良言和思想若銘記於心並多加珍視，就會成爲我們忠實的伴侶和永恆的慰藉。
書籍具有不朽的本質，是爲人類努力創造的最爲持久的成果。寺廟會倒坍，神像會朽爛，而書卻經久長存。對於偉大的思想來說，時間是無關緊要的。多年前初次閃現於作者腦海的偉大思想今日依然清新如故。時間惟一的作用是淘汰不好的作品，因爲只有真正的佳作才能經世長存。
書籍介紹我們與最優秀的人爲伍，使我們置身於歷代偉人巨匠之間，如聞其聲，如觀其行，如見其人，同他們情感交融，悲喜與共，感同身受。我們覺得自己彷彿在作者所描繪的舞臺上和他們一起粉墨登場。
即使在人世間，偉大傑出的人物也永生不來。他們的精神被載入書冊，傳於四海。書是人生至今仍在聆聽的智慧之聲，永遠充滿着活力。
優美英語散文：如果我休息，我就會生鏽If I Rest, I Rust
The significant inscription found on an old key---“If I rest, I rust”---would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.
Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture---every department of human endeavor.
Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.
Labor vanquishes all---not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.
優美英語散文譯文：如果我休息，我就會生鏽
在一把舊鑰匙上發現了一則意義深遠的銘文——如果我休息，我就會生鏽。對於那些懶散而煩惱的人來說，這將是至理名言。甚至最爲勤勉的人也以此作爲警示：如果一個人有才能而不用，就像廢棄鑰匙上的鐵一樣，這些才能就會很快生鏽，並最終無法完成安排給自己的工作。
有些人想取得偉人所獲得並保持的成就，他們就必須不斷運用自身才能，以便開啓知識的大門，即那些通往人類努力探求的各個領域的大門，這些領域包括各種職業：科學，藝術，文學，農業等。
勤奮使開啓成功寶庫的鑰匙保持光亮。如果休•米勒在採石場勞作一天後，晚上的時光用來休息消遣的話，他就不會成爲名垂青史的地質學家。著名數學家愛德蒙•斯通如果閒暇時無所事事，就不會出版數學詞典，也不會發現開啓數學之門的鑰匙。如果蘇格蘭青年弗格森在山坡上放羊時，讓他那思維活躍的大腦處於休息狀態，而不是藉助一串珠子計算星星的位置，他就不會成爲著名的天文學家。
勞動征服一切。這裏所指的勞動不是斷斷續續的，間歇性的或方向偏差的勞動，而是堅定的，不懈的，方向正確的每日勞動。正如要想擁有自由就要時刻保持警惕一樣，要想取得偉大的，持久的成功，就必須堅持不懈地努力。
優美英語散文：抱負Ambition
It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world: with out demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions. Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.
Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be!
There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and events now not all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on one’s own. But even the most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity.
We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.
優美英語散文譯文：抱負
一個缺乏抱負的世界將會怎樣，這不難想象。或許，這將是一個更爲友善的世界：沒有渴求，沒有磨擦，沒有失望。人們將有時間進行反思。他們所從事的工作將不是爲了他們自身，而是爲了整個集體。競爭永遠不會介入;衝突將被消除。人們的緊張關係將成爲過往雲煙。創造的重壓將得以終結。藝術將不再惹人費神，其功能將純粹爲了慶典。人的壽命將會更長，因爲由激烈拼爭引起的心臟病和中風所導致的死亡將越來越少。焦慮將會消失。時光流逝，抱負卻早已遠離人心。
啊，長此以往人生將變得多麼乏味無聊!
有一種盛行的觀點認爲，成功是一種神話，因此抱負亦屬虛幻。這是不是說實際上並不豐在成功?成就本身就是一場空?與諸多運動和事件的力量相比，男男女女的努力顯得微不足?顯然，並非所有的成功都值得景仰，也並非所有的抱負都值得追求。對值得和不值得的選擇，一個人自然而然很快就能學會。但即使是最爲憤世嫉俗的人暗地裏也承認，成功確實存在，成就的意義舉足輕重，而把世上男男女女的所作所爲說成是徒勞無功纔是真正的無稽之談。認爲成功不存在的觀點很可能造成混亂。這種觀點的本意是一筆勾銷所有提高能力的動機，求取業績的興趣和對子孫後代的關注。
我們無法選擇出生，無法選擇父母，無法選擇出生的歷史時期與國家，或是成長的周遭環境。我們大多數人都無法選擇死亡，無法選擇死亡的時間或條件。但是在這些無法選擇之中，我們的確可以選擇自己的生活方式：是勇敢無畏還是膽小怯懦，是光明磊落還是厚顏無恥，是目標堅定還是隨波逐流。我們決定生活中哪些至關重要，哪些微不足道。我們決定，用以顯示我們自身重要性的，不是我們做了什麼，就是我們拒絕做些什麼。但是不論世界對我們所做的選擇和決定有多麼漠不關心，這些選擇和決定終究是我們自己做出的。我們決定，我們選擇。而當我們決定和選擇時，我們的生活便得以形成。最終構築我們命運的就是抱負之所在。
優美英語散文：我爲何而生What I Have Lived For
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 mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy---ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for 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 the 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 I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what---at last---I have found.
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 Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always it brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate 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.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
優美英語散文譯文：我爲何而生
我的一生被三種簡單卻又無比強烈的激情所控制：對愛的渴望，對知識的探索和對人類苦難難以抑制的嶼。這些激情像狂風，把我恣情吹向四方，掠過苦痛的大海，迫使我瀕臨絕望的邊緣。
我尋求愛，首先因爲它使我心爲之着迷，這種難以名狀的美妙迷醉使我願意用所有的餘生去換取哪怕幾個小時這樣的幸福。我尋求愛，還因爲它能緩解我心理上的孤獨中，我感覺心靈的戰慄，仿如站在世界的邊緣而面前是冰冷，無底的死亡深淵。我尋求愛，因爲在我所目睹的結合中，我彷彿看到了聖賢與詩人們所向往的天堂之景。這就是我所尋找的，雖然對人的一生而言似乎有些遙不可及，但至少是我用盡一生所領悟到的。
我用同樣的激情去尋求知識。我希望能理解人類的心靈，希望能夠知道羣星閃爍的緣由。我試圖領悟畢達哥拉斯所景仰的“數即萬物”的思想。我已經悟出了其中的一點點道理，儘管並不是很多。
愛和知識，用它們的力量把人引向天堂。但是同情卻總把人又拽回到塵世中來。痛苦的呼喊聲迴盪在我的內心。飢餓的孩子，受壓迫的難民，貧窮和痛苦的世界，都是對人類所憧憬的美好生活的無情嘲弄。我渴望能夠減少邪惡，但是我無能爲力，我也難逃其折磨。
這就是我的一生。我已經找到它的價值。而且如果有機會，我很願意能再活它一次。
優美英語散文：愛的召喚When Love Beckons You
When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to our roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
But if, in your fear, you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but it self and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a payer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
優美英語散文譯文：愛的召喚
當愛召喚你時，請追隨她，儘管愛的道路艱難險峻。當愛的羽翼擁抱你時，請順從她，儘管隱藏在其羽翼之下的劍可能會傷到你。當愛向你訴說時，請相信她，儘管她的聲音可能打破你的夢想，就如同北風吹落花園裏所有的花瓣。
愛會給你戴上桂冠，也會折磨你。愛會助你成長，也會給你修枝。愛會上升到枝頭，撫愛你在陽光下顫動力的嫩枝，也會下潛至根部，撼動力你緊抓泥土的根基。
但是，如果你在恐懼之中只想尋求愛的平和與快樂，那你就最好掩蓋真實的自我，避開愛的考驗，進入不分季節的世界，在那裏你將歡笑，但並非開懷大笑，你將哭泣，但並非盡情地哭。愛只將自己付出，也只得到自己。愛一無所有，也不會爲誰所有，因爲愛本身就已自足。
愛除了實現自我別無他求。但是如果你愛而又不得不有所求，那就請期望：
將自己融化並像奔流的溪水一般向夜晚吟唱自己優美的曲調。
明瞭過多的溫柔所帶來的苦痛。
被自己對愛的理解所傷害;
並情願快樂地悲傷。
在黎明帶着輕快的心醒來並感謝又一個有家的日子;
在黃昏懷着感恩之心回家;
然後爲內心所愛之人祈禱，吟唱讚美之歌，並帶着禱告和歌聲入眠。
優美英語散文：成功之道The Road to Success
It is well that young men should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate positions. Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a serious responsibility thrust upon them at the very threshold of their career. They were introduced to the broom, and spent the first hours of their business lives sweeping out the office. I notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, and our young men unfortunately miss that salutary branch of business education. But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. It does not hurt the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary. I was one of those sweepers myself.
Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is “aim high”. I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm. Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive. Say to yourself, “My place is at the top.” Be king in your dreams.
And here is the prime condition of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.
The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here there, and everywhere. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” is all wrong. I tell you to “put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.” Look round you and take notice, men who do that not often fail. It is easy to watch and carry the one basket. It is trying to carry too many baskets that breaks most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. One fault of the American businessman is lack of concentration.
To summarize what I have said: aim for the highest; never enter a bar room; do not touch liquor, or if at all only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; make the firm’s interest yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket; expenditure always within revenue; lastly, be not impatient, for as Emerson says, “no one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourselves.”
優美英語散文譯文：成功之道
年輕人創業之初，應該從最底層幹起，這是件好事。匹茲保有很多商業巨頭，在他們創業之初，都肩負過“重任”：他們以掃帚相伴，以打掃辦公室的方式度過了他們商業生涯中最初的時光。我注意到我們現在辦公室裏都有工友，於是年輕人就不幸錯過了商業教育中這個有益的環節。如果碰巧哪天上午專職掃地的工友沒有來，某個具有未來合夥人氣質的年輕人會毫不猶豫地試着拿起掃帚。在必要時新來的員工掃掃地也無妨，不會因爲而有什麼損失。我自己就曾經掃過地。
假如你已經被錄用，並且有了一個良好的開端，我對你的建議是：要志存高遠。一個年輕人，如果不把自己想象成一家大公司未來的老闆或者是合夥人，那我會對他不屑一顧。不論職位有多高，你的內心都不要滿足於做一個總管，領班或者總經理。要對自己說：我要邁向頂尖!要做就做你夢想中的國王!
成功的首要條件和最大祕訣就是：把你的精力，思想和資本全都集中在你正從事的事業上。一旦開始從事某種職業，就要下定決心在那一領域闖出一片天地來;做這一行的領導人物，採納每一點改進之心，採用最優良的設備，對專業知識熟稔於心。
一些公司的失敗就在於他們分散了資金，因爲這就意味着分散了他們的精力。他們向這方面投資，又向那方面投資;在這裏投資，在那裏投資，到處都投資。“不要把所有的雞蛋放在一個籃子裏”的說法大錯特錯。我要對你說：“把所有的雞蛋都放在一個籃子裏，然後小心地看好那個籃子。”看看你周圍，你會注意到：這麼做的人其實很少失敗。看管和攜帶一個籃子並不太難。人們總是試圖提很多籃子，所以纔打破這個國家的大部分雞蛋。提三個籃子的人，必須把一個頂在頭上，而這個籃子很可能倒下來，把他自己絆倒。美國商人的一個缺點就是不夠專注。
把我的話歸納一下：要志存高遠;不要出入酒吧;要滴酒不沾，或要喝也只在用餐時喝少許;不要做投機買賣;不要寅吃卯糧;要把公司的利益當作自己的利益;取消訂貨的目的永遠是爲了挽救貨主;要專注;要把所有的雞蛋放在一個籃子裏，然後小心地看好它;要量入爲出;最後，要有耐心，正如愛默生所言，“誰都無法阻止你最終成功，除非你自己承認自己失敗。”
優美英語散文：論見名人On Meeting the Celebrated
I have always wondered at the passion many people have to meet the celebrated. The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account. The celebrated develop a technique to deal with the persons they come across. They show the world a mask, often an impressive on, but take care to conceal their real selves. They play the part that is expected from them, and with practice learn to play it very well, but you are stupid if you think that this public performance of theirs corresponds with the man within.
I have been attached, deeply attached, to a few people; but I have been interested in men in general not for their own sakes, but for the sake of my work. I have not, as Kant enjoined, regarded each man as an end in himself, but as material that might be useful to me as a writer. I have been more concerned with the obscure than with the famous. They are more often themselves. They have had no need to create a figure to protect themselves from the world or to impress it. Their idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited circle of their activity, and since they have never been in the public eye it has never occurred to them that they have anything to conceal. They display their oddities because it has never struck them that they are odd. And after all it is with the common run of men that we writers have to deal; kings, dictators, commercial magnates are from our point of view very unsatisfactory. To write about them is a venture that has often tempted writers, but the failure that has attended their efforts shows that such beings are too exceptional to form a proper ground for a work of art. They cannot be made real. The ordinary is the writer’s richer field. Its unexpectedness, its singularity, its infinite variety afford unending material. The great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you. For my part I would much sooner spend a month on a desert island with a veterinary surgeon than with a prime minister.
優美英語散文譯文：論見名人
許多人熱衷於見名人，我始終不得其解。在朋友面前吹噓自己認識某某名人，同此而來的聲望只能證明自己的微不足道。名人個個練就了一套處世高招，無論遇上誰，都能應付自如。他們給世人展現的是一副面具，常常是美好難忘的面具，但他們會小心翼翼地掩蓋自己的真相。他們扮演的是大家期待的角色，演得多了，最後都能演得惟妙惟肖。如果你還以爲他們在公衆面前的表演就是他們的真實自我，那就你傻了。
我自己就喜歡一些人，非常喜歡他們。但我對人感興趣一般不是因爲他們自身的緣故，而是出於我工作需求。正如康德勸告的那樣，我從來沒有把認識某人作爲目的，而是將其當作對一個作家有用的創作素材。比之名流顯士，我更加關注無名小卒。他們常常顯得較爲自然真實，他們無須再創造另一個人物形象，用他來保護自己不受世人干擾，或者用他來感動世人。他們的社交圈子有限，自己的種種癖性也就越有可能得到滋長。因爲他們從來沒有引起公衆的關注，也就從來沒有想到過要隱瞞什麼。他們會表露他們古怪的一面，因爲他們從來就沒有覺得有何古怪。總之，作家要寫的是普通人。在我們看來，國王，獨裁者和商界大亨等都是不符合條件的。去撰寫這些人物經常是作家們難以抗拒的冒險之舉，可爲此付出的努力不免以失敗告終，這說明這些人物都過於特殊，無法成爲一件藝術作品的創作根基，作家也不可能把他們寫得真真切切。老百姓纔是作家的創作沃土，他們或變幻無常，或難覓其二，各式人物應有盡有，這些都給作家提供了無限的創作素材。大人物經常是千人一面，小人物身上纔有一組組矛盾元素，是取之不盡的創作源泉，讓你驚喜不斷。就我而言，如果在孤島上度過一個月，我寧願和一名獸醫相守，也不願同一位首相做伴。
優美英語散文：生活理論半對半The 50-Percent Theory of Life
I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they re worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.
Let’s benchmark the parameters: yes, I will die. I’ve dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale.
Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person; having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son’s baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he’s swimming with the dogs, discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos.
But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50-percent theory.
One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal---the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioned died; the well went dry; the marriage ended; the job lost; the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tune---music I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits.
Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn’t last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50-percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals’ recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest.
For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed with corn---fat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tip---while my neighbors’ fields yielded only brown, empty husks.
Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought.
優美英語散文譯文：生活理論半對半
我信奉對半理論。生活時而無比順暢，時而倒黴透頂。我覺得生活就像來回擺的鐘擺。讀懂生活的常態需要時間和閱歷，而讀懂它也練就了我面對未來的生活態度。
讓我們確定一下好壞的標準：是的，我註定會死去。我已經經歷了雙親，一位好友，一位敬愛的老闆和心愛寵物的死亡。有些突如其來，近在眼前，有些卻緩慢痛苦。這些都是糟糕的事情，它們屬於最壞的部分。
生活中也不乏高潮：墜入愛河締結良緣;身爲人父養育幼子，諸如訓練指導兒子的棒球隊，當他和狗在小河中嬉戲時搖槳划船，感受他如此強烈的同情心-即使對蝸牛也善待有加，發現他如此豐富的想象力-即使用零散的樂高玩具積木也能堆出太空飛船。
但在生活最好與最壞部分之間有一片巨大的中間地帶，其間各種好事壞事像耍雜技一樣上下翻滾，輪番出現。這就是讓我信服對半理論的原因。
有一年奏，我在一塊窪地上過早地種上了玉米。那塊地極易遭到水淹，所以鄰居們都嘲笑我。我爲浪費了精力而感到懊惱。沒想到夏天更爲殘酷-我經歷了最糟糕的熱浪和乾旱。空調壞了，進幹了，婚姻破裂了，工作丟了，錢也沒有。我正經歷着某首鄉村歌曲中描繪的情節，我討厭這種音樂，只有剛出道不久的堪薩斯皇家棒球隊能鼓舞我的精神。
回首那個糟糕的夏天，我很快就明白了，所有後來出現的好事只不過與壞事相互抵消。比一般情況糟糕的境遇不會延宕過久;而太平時光是我應得的，我要盡情享受，它們爲我注入活力以應對下一個險情，並確保我可以興旺發達。對半理論甚至幫助我在堪薩斯皇家棒球隊最近的低潮中看到希望-這是一快艱難行進的新手們耕耘的土地，只要播種了，假以時日我們就可以收穫十月的金秋。
那個夏天天氣酷熱，地而溼度適宜，提早播種就可以在熱浪打蔫植尖之前完成授粉，同於乾旱更沒有爆發洪水，產在田裏的玉米得以保存。因此那個冬天我的糧倉堆滿了玉米-豐滿，健康，一顆三穗且從頭到腳都是飽滿的玉米粒的玉米穗-而我的鄰居們收穫的只是曬黑的空殼。
儘管過去的播種可能沒有達到50%的收穫期望，而且將來也可能是這樣，但我仍然能靠着在旱季繁茂生長的莊稼而生存下去。
優美英語散文10篇附譯文
