英文美文勵志小故事品析
十年寒窗，一心只讀聖賢書的懸樑刺股是中國纔有的黑色勵志幽默。下面小編整理了英文美文勵志小故事，希望大家喜歡!
A Ball to Roll Around
滾球
by Robert G Allman
羅伯特·G·奧爾曼
I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in Atlantic City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty-two. I can vaguely remember the brightness of sunshine and what red color is. It would be wonderful to see again, but a calamity can do strange things to people.
4歲那年在大西洋城，我從貨場一輛火車上摔下來，頭先着地，於是雙目失明。現在我已經32歲了。我還模糊地記得陽光是多麼燦爛，紅色是多麼鮮豔。能恢復視覺固然好，但災難也能對人產生奇妙的作用。
It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn’t been blind. I believe in life now. I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply, otherwise. I don’t mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.
有一天我突然想到，倘若我不是盲人，我或許不會變得像現在這樣熱愛生活。現在我相信生活，但我不能肯定如果自己是明眼人，會不會像現在這樣深深地相信生活。這並不意味着我寧願成爲盲人，而只是意味着失去視力使我更加珍惜自己其他的能力。
Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was bewildered and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me —a potential to live, you might call it ——which I didn’t see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
我認爲，生活要求人不斷地自我調整以適應現實。人愈能及時地進行調整，他的個人世界便愈有意義。調整決非易事。我曾感到茫然害怕，但我很幸運，父母和老師在我身上發現了某種東西——可以稱之爲活下去的潛力吧——而我自己卻沒有發現。他們激勵我誓與失明拼搏到底。
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn’t been able to do that, I would have collapsed and become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self-confidence that helps me down a unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
我必須學會的最艱難的一課就是相信自己，這是基本條件。如做不到這一點，我的精神就會崩潰，只能坐在前門廊的搖椅中度過餘生。相信自己並不僅僅指支持我獨自走下陌生的樓梯的那種自信，那是一部分。我指的是大事：是堅信自己雖然有缺陷，卻是一個真正的有進取心的人;堅信在芸芸衆生錯綜複雜的格局當中，自有我可以安身立命的一席之地。
It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the most elementary things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball, I thought he was mocking me and I was hurt. “I can’t use this,” I said. “Take it with you,” he urged me,” and roll it around. “The words stuck in my head.” Roll it around!” By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia’s Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.
我花了很長時間才樹立並不斷加強這一信念。這要從最簡單的事做起。有一次一個人給我一個室內玩的棒球，我以爲他在嘲笑我，心裏很難受。“我不能使這個。”我說。“你拿去，”他竭力勸我，“在地上滾。”他的話在我腦子裏生了根。“在地上滾!” 滾球使我聽見它朝哪兒滾動。我馬上想到一個我曾認爲不可能達到的目標：打棒球。在費城的奧弗布魯克盲人學校，我發明了一種很受人歡迎的棒球遊戲，我們稱它爲地面球。
All my life I have set ahead of is a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good to try for something I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.
我這一輩子給自己樹立了一系列目標，然後努力去達到，一次一個。我必須瞭解自己能力有限，若開始就知道某個目標根本達不到卻硬要去實現，那不會有任何好處，因爲那隻會帶來失敗的苦果。我有時也失敗過，但一般來說總有進步。
經典的英文美文勵志小故事Flotsam, Jetsam, and Liberty
難民與自由
By James Carey
詹姆斯.B.凱里
Perhaps more than anything else in the world, I believe in liberty: liberty for myself, liberty for my fellow men.
也許在世界上我最信奉的是自由：自己的自由，同胞的自由。
I cannot forget the legend engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty on Bedlows Island in New York Harbor: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
我無法忘記紐約港自由島上自由女神像底座上的文字：“給我你那疲憊、貧窮、蜷曲、渴望自由呼吸的身軀，可憐的被遺忘在你們海岸的人羣。
Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. That is the voice of America.
交給我吧，那些無家可歸、顛簸流離的人們;我在金色之門高舉火炬。”那是美國的聲音。
As one small part of it, one tiny decibel in its sound, I, as a free individual of America, believe in it.
作爲它的一小部分，它聲音中的一個分貝，我，美國的一個自由人，相信這聲音。
It makes no boast of noble ancestry. On the contrary, it admits honestly that each of us in this country, with a possible and qualified exception of our native Indians, is a displaced person.
它沒有炫耀高貴的祖先，反而坦率承認在這個國家，我們每個人都是被迫流落此處的難民，只有土著印第安人才可能有資格成爲例外。
In a particular kind of way, the Indian was our first displaced person. If you and I did not come from abroad ourselves, our forefathers did. The scores that drove them was economic, political, or religious oppression.
從某種意義上講，印第安人使我們的首批難民。如果你我本身不是移民，我們的祖先便是。經濟、政治或宗教迫害的皮鞭將可憐的被遺棄的難民逼到生活的邊緣。
Oppression has always strewn the shores of life with wretched human refuse. We who today are the proud people of a proud country are what might be called the reclaimed refuse of other lands.
而今，我們充滿自豪，因爲我們是這個值得驕傲的國家的公民，我們這些在異國遭到遺棄的人在這裏獲得了新生。
The fact that the flotsam and the jetsam, the persecuted and the pursued of all these other lands, the fact that they came here and, for the most part, successfully started life anew, this renews my faith in the resilience of a human individual and the dignity of man.
所有這些難民、遭受迫害和追捕的人從異國來到這裏，大多數順利地開始了新的生活。這一事實使我對人這一個體的活力和人類尊嚴的信念有了新的認識。
There are those who say we should be content with the material benefits we have accrued among ourselves. I cannot accept that for myself. A laboring man needs bread and butter, and cash to pay the rent.
有人說，我們應滿足於自然增長的物質利益，我個人無法接受這一說法。勞動者需要麪包和黃油，也要錢付房租.
But he would be a poor individual, indeed, if he were not able to furnish the vestibule of his mind and his soul with spiritual embellishments beyond the price of a union contract.
但如果他無法用聯盟合約規定的價格之外的精神飾物裝點心智和靈魂的門廊，他將是個真正的可憐蟲。
I mean by this that I believe it is important for a man to discover, whether he is an electrical worker or an executive, that he is an individual with his own resources and a sense of the dignity of his own person and that of other men.
我的意思是我相信，對一個人來說，無論是個電工還是執行官，重要的是要認識到自己是一個擁有精神財富和尊嚴的人，是一個尊重他人尊嚴的人。
We are separate. We are collective. Man can be strong alone but not indomitable, in isolation. He has to belong to something, to realize he is not created separately or apart from the rest of mankind, whether he is an American or a Mohammedan.
我們既是分離的個體，又是集體的一員。人們單槍匹馬時可以堅強有力，孤軍作戰時卻容易擊敗。他必須有歸屬感，即認識到不管他是美國人還是穆斯林，他並非孤立存在或遠離人類其他成員。
I am stirred by the abundance of the fields, the forest, the streams, and the natural resources they hold.
我們那廣袤的土地、大片的森林、衆多的溪流和它們豐富的自然資源讓我激動
But do these things make me important? Have we wrought the miracle of America because of these riches we hold? I say, no.
然而，是那些資源才使我重要嗎?我們是憑藉那些財富在美國創造的奇蹟嗎?我要說：“不是。”
Our strength—and I can say my strength, too, because I am a part of this whole—lies in a fundamental belief in the validity of human rights. And I believe that a man who holds these rights in proper esteem is greater, whether he is recognized or not.
我們的力量--也可以說我的力量，因爲我是這個整體的一份子--存在於一種最根本的信念，相信人權的有效性。我認爲一個人如果恰當地尊重這些權力，不管他獲得認可與否，都是偉大的。
As an individual, I must face the future with honesty and faith, in the goods things that have made us mighty. I must have confidence in myself, in others, and all men of goodwill everywhere, for freedom is the child of truth and confidence.
作爲個人，我必須誠實地面對未來，並相信使我們強大的美好事物。我必須對自己、他人和任何地方有着善良意願的人充滿信心，因爲自由是真理和信心的孩子。
關於英文美文勵志小故事Dreams Are the Stuff Life Is Made Of
夢想構造生活
by Carroll Carroll
卡洛.卡洛
I believe I'm a very lucky man.
我相信自己是一個幸運的人。
My entire life has been lived in the healthy area between too little and too much. I've never experienced financial or emotional insecurity, but everything I have, I've attained by my own work, not through indulgence, inheritance or privilege.
我的一生生活平穩，毫無波瀾。我從未經歷過經濟或情感危機，但我擁有的一切並不是依靠溺愛、遺產或特權，而是通過我自己的努力工作得來的。
Never having lived by the abuses of any extreme, I've always felt that a workman is worthy of his hire, a merchant entitled to his profit, an artist to his reward.
生活中的我從不濫走極端，始終認爲工人就應當工作，商人就應當獲利，藝術家有權獲取報酬。
As a result of all this, my bargaining bump may be a little underdeveloped, so I've never tried to oversell myself. And though I may work for less than I know I can get, I find that because of this, I'm never so afraid of losing a job that I'm forced to compromise with my principles.
正因如此，我討價還價的能力沒有絲毫長進，所以我從不試圖過分吹噓自己。儘管我知道自己的酬勞少於實際應得的，但我仍會繼續工作。我發現，由此一來，我從未因害怕失業而做出任何違背原則的事。
Naturally in a life as mentally, physically, emotionally and financially fortunate as mine has been, a great many people have helped me. A few meant to, most did so by accident.
的確，像我這種在精神、身體、情感與經濟上如此幸運的人，少不了很多人曾給予的幫助。有些幫助是刻意的，但大部分的則是偶然爲之
I still feel I must reciprocate. This doesn't mean that I've dedicated my life to my fellow man. I'm not the type. But I do feel I should help those I'm qualified to help, just as I've been helped by others.
儘管如此，我依然認爲必須報答他們。這並不是說我爲同胞們奉獻出了自己的一生，我也不是那樣的人。但我覺得應該儘自己所能去幫助他人，就像別人幫助我一樣。
What I'm saying now is, I feel, part of that pattern. I think everyone should, for his own sake, try to reduce to six hundred words the beliefs by which he lives - it's not easy - and then compare those beliefs with what he enjoys - not in real estate and money and goods, but in love, health, happiness and laughter.
我認爲，現在所說的這些正是我信仰中的一部分。即使很難，但爲了自身利益，每個人都應將生活的信仰縮減至600字，並將其與他所享有的東西作比較——不比擁有的房產、金錢和物品，而是比愛、健康、幸福與歡笑。
I don't believe we live our lives and then receive our reward or punishment in some afterlife. The life and the reward... The life and the punishment - these to me are one. This is my religion, coupled with the firm belief that there is Supreme Being who planned this world and runs it so that "no man is an island, entire of himself..." The dishonesty of any one man subverts all honesty. The lack of ethics anywhere adulterates the whole world's ethical content. In these - honesty and ethics - are, I think, the true spiritual values.
我不相信，今生的生活方式會在來世受到報應。生活與獎賞……生活與懲罰——對我而言，是同一回事。這就是我的信仰，與之緊緊相連的，是我堅信上帝創造並操縱着這個世界，使“任何人都不是獨立的孤島……”某一個人的欺詐會破壞所有人的正直。無論何處的道德淪喪了，都會造成整個社會的道德變質。我認爲，只有誠實與道德才擁有真正的精神價值。
I believe the hope for a thoroughly honest and ethical society should never be laughed at. The most idealistic dreams have repeatedly forecast the future. Most of the things we think of today as hard, practical and even indispensable were once merely dreams.
我相信，永遠不應嘲笑對構建擁有誠實與道德的社會的期望。最理想化的夢想往往預示着未來。如今我們覺得實在、實用甚至不可或缺的許多東西，曾經也只是夢想。
So I think to hope that the world need not be a dog-eat-dog jungle. I don't think I'm my brother's keeper. But I do think I'm obliged to be his helper. And that he has the same obligation to me.
因此，我希望這個世界不再是自相殘殺的世界。我不認爲自己是多管閒事的人。但我覺得自己有義務去幫助他人，就像他人有義務幫助我一樣。
In the last analysis, the entire pattern of my life and belief can be found in the words "DO NOT do unto others that which you would NOT have others do unto you." To say "Do unto others as you would have others DO unto you" somehow implies bargaining, an offer of favor for favor. But to restrain from acts which you, yourself, would abhor is an exercise in will power that must raise the level of human relationship.
總而言之，“無論做什麼，你希望別人如何待你，就要如何對待別人。”這句話正好涵蓋了我的生活與信仰的全部。“要想別人如何待你，你也要如何對待別人。”暗示着禮尚往來的交易。然而，不做連自己都痛恨的事則是對意志力的一種磨練，這也會使人際關係有所改善。
"What is unpleasant to thyself," says Hillel, "THAT do NOT unto thy neighbor. This is the whole law," and he concluded, "All else is exposition."
希勒爾說：“己所不欲，勿施於人。這就是全部法則。”他還概括說：“餘下的所有隻是對其的闡述。”
