雙語散文:真正的高尚 The Ture Nobility
In a calm sea every man is a pilot.
風平浪靜的大海上，每個人都是領航員。
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 anther, 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.
但只有晴天沒有陰霾，只有快樂沒有悲傷，那就全然不是人生。就拿最幸福的人來說吧——他們的命運就是一團糾纏不清的紗線。喪親之痛和神恩賜福此起彼伏，讓我們悲歡交替。甚至連死亡本身也使生命更加珍貴。人們在生命的莊嚴時刻，在哀傷和喪親的陰影之下，最接近真實的自我。
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.
在生活或事業中，性格比才智更能指導我們，心靈比頭腦更能引導我們，而源自於判斷的剋制，耐心和自制力比天分更能讓我們受益。
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.
我一向認爲，只有自內心開始生活得更爲嚴謹的人，他外在的生活纔會變得更爲簡樸。在物慾橫流、揮霍浪費的年代，但願我能向世人表明：人類的真正需求少得可憐。
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.
反思自己的過錯而不重蹈覆轍纔是真正的悔悟。高人一等並不等於高尚，真正的高尚是超越原來的你。
