英語勵志小短文帶譯文

　　帶有翻譯的短文其實和讀中文短文也差不多，那麼有哪些英語勵志小短文呢？下面是小編給大家整理的，供大家參閱!

　　：A Game of Cards

　　玩牌遊戲

　　By Norman Cousins

　　諾曼·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.

　　自從能夠看懂哲學書開始，有關人性的討論就激起了我濃厚的興趣。人性是善還是惡、是利他還是利己、是合作還是競爭、是群居還是以自我為中心、是相信自由意志還是相信宿命，這些是哲學家們多少年來一直爭論不休的話題。

　　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.

　　人類一直對自身感到困惑，這可以追溯到柏拉圖與蘇格拉底的對活，甚至更早時期。人類知道自己擁有做出偉大而高尚的事情的能力，然而卻又被犯下大罪的證據所壓迫。

　　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。對於這種矛盾是否能夠解決，我並不敢斷言。然而，事實上，人們沒有必要非要化解這種矛盾。人是兩面性的動物，因此，我認為爭論人性善或惡、意志自由或宿命以及其他一切矛盾都是徒勞無益的。

　　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，也有邪惡的一面;既有利他的一面，也有利己的一面。人們享受著能夠在生活中做出決定的自由意志，然而卻無法改變與生俱來的基因、親屬或體徵。

　　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.

　　與其思索哪一方面主導著人性，還不如思索人之所以善良或邪惡的矛盾和環境，從而讓人成為人類群體中具有高尚品質和責任感的人。

　　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.

　　在近期訪問次大陸期間，我在印度聽到了一些事情，它們在自由意志和宿命論方面的價值是值得一提的。當地人告訴我，自由意志和宿命論就像玩紙牌遊戲，宿命論就是發牌的手，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，這一切把我們帶到了什麼地方?我認為，那些能夠培養人類最優秀品質的環境，是我們應該努力去創造和保護的。例如，我們知道恐懼感和無法克服恐懼的意識能夠導致人性產生最邪惡的東西

　　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.

　　我們同樣知道，個人的真實狀況經過放大就會成為社會的真實狀況。如今，世界各個地方的人仍然遭受著恐懼因素的影響。

　　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.

　　恐懼瓦解了希臘文明，然而在兩千三百多年前，它具有創造性的智慧和成就已經達到了非凡的高度。同樣，如果我在環球旅行時的所見不虛的話

　　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.

　　人類正在滑向一場大戰，這場戰爭將會把人類數千年取得的進步毀之一旦，這是由人類犯錯底線被突破而導致的恐懼所引起的。這是因為，對於人類而言，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.

　　人類的命運是我們今天所面臨的問題，這比任何政治體制和任何民族的命運更為重要。

　　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，我們是否能夠把地球建人類的安全之所;其次，我們是否能夠把地球建成適宜人類居住的地方。

　　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，對於消除恐懼並走向歷史上最偉大的黃金時代，人類擁有各種各樣的辦法。不管人是作為個體還是人類群體的一員，這個時代都將會為人類的進步和善良本性的形成提供條跡然後，人類只需要理性地調動智慧和良知，就可以運用這些辦法了。真理滲透在我們的生活中。站在海岸上，觀看顛簸於大海之上的船帆，是一種樂趣;站在城堡垛口，觀看激戰中的戰場，也是一種樂趣;

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

　　然而，什麼也比不上站在真理的前哨，洞察山谷中的謬誤、彷徨、迷霧與風暴，這更令人歡欣。

　　：Causes Are People

　　事業即人

　　by Susan Parker Cobbs

　　蘇珊·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.

　　完成這一任務對我並非易事。首先，我是個不善言辭的人，其次，除了生活中最主要的信仰之外，一個人還有如此多的信仰，變化的、零星的和短暫的信仰。

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

　　我努力將最主要的信仰說出來，並希望我的話聽起來不會太簡單，或虔誠過度。

　　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.

　　我知道我毫不動搖地深信人心中有一種善的力量，並且能在生活中行善。

　　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.

　　在我看來，這意味著一種使人際關係更為重要的生活方式，一種使人們的美德，即勇氣、謙恭、無私和愛更美麗、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.

　　我過去常常笑話母親一聽說或讀到反映這些美德的某件事時眼淚就奪眶而出，如今我不再笑話她了，因為我發現自己對同類事件的反應越來越強烈，表達方式同樣不合時宜。

　　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，我相信我能夠也必須行動起來表現善良的心地。我常常想起蘇格拉底的話:“未經審視的生活是不值得過的。”

　　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.

　　通過審視，我們能夠發現自己的善良是什麼，能夠認識到懂得了善良就意味著它的成就。我知道這樣的自省決非容易，柏拉圖認為這是靈魂永世的追求，在我看來現在自省尤為不易，因為在這樣一個物慾急劇膨脹、衝突四起的時期，黑白已經混淆，不易辨別了。

　　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.

　　由此產生另一種信仰，如果我內心具備行善一生的潛力並有表現它的衝動，那麼這種潛力和衝動人皆有之。我在追求時自身必須具備的條件人人皆須擁有:能自由選擇，相信這種潛力，相信真理能造福於人類。

　　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.

　　今天最讓我害怕的是否認這些權利，因為否認這些權利只能源自否認我所理解的基本人性。如果我的信念站得住腳，人就比他創造的任何東西都重要，我們的偉大職責就是將社會龐大的上層建築重置於附屬地位。

　　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.

　　我希望以這種方式將我們的問題歸結為人類共同的問題不是在逃避它們。我不認為這是一種逃避，因為對我們大多數人而言，它是我們唯一可以活動的領域：人類的領域—與我們自己合作，與我們接觸的人合作，並通過了解這兩者與整個人類合作，我相信這是最可靠的起點。

　　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.

　　這些日子我看見年輕人努力解決我們存在的重大問題，他們比我們那一代的學生更關注這些問題，更積極地參與。他們深刻地意識到“平等”和“公正”兩詞的內涵。

　　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.

　　他們熱望匡正人世，卻容易忘記事業即人，沒有什麼比人更重要。他們需要在這些運動中注人同情和愛等更感人的品德。這裡再次出現了那些讓人淚眼模糊的美德。

　　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.

　　還有一句話，我相信我們善心的力量是真實的，它來自我們身外，否則我無法如此堅定地信仰它。

　　：Keep the Innocent Eye 保持眼睛的純真

　　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."