優美勵志的英文文章

　　有條件的小夥伴可以時常找一些來看看，那麼都有哪些呢?一起來看看吧。

　　：固守自己的優勢

　　Stick to your special talents

　　You were born with a special talent. It may be to sing, write, teach, paint, mentor, preach, defend or befriend. You have something special to offer the world, something you can do better than 10,000 others. You must keep learning and trying new things to find your special talent. The world needs your gift. Be aware that even a special talent can go stale if you don’t keep using and honing it. Endeavor to keep your talents and all your skills up to date.

　　An advantage isn’t an advantage unless you use it. Find ways to use your advantages to set and reach your goals. Likewise, you should recognize and then try to minimize the impact of your limitations. Remember that not all advantages are transferable. Just because you are talented in one area doesn’t mean that you will be talented at everything you try. The successful real estate investor can easily lose her money opening a restaurant. Stick to your advantages and don’t stray from them without reasoned justification.

　　[參考譯文]

　　固守自己的優勢

　　你生而有自己的特殊天賦。你的特長可能是唱歌，寫作，教書，繪畫，勸導，步道，辯護或交友。你總有些特殊之處可以貢獻給這個世界，有些事你可以做的比另外一萬個人做的都好。你必須不斷學習和嘗試新的事物從而發現自己的特殊才能。時間需要你的貢獻饋贈。要明白即使是特殊才能如果不經常使用而且磨練的話也會失效。因此要盡力使自己的天賦與所有的技能跟上時代。

　　任何優勢如果不用的話也就不稱其為優勢了。找到辦法運用你的優勢來確定並實現你的目標。同樣的你應該意識到自己的不足之處並盡力將其不利影響限制在最小程度。切記並不是所有的優勢都能夠相互轉換的：你在某一方面有天賦並不意味著你在自己所嘗試的一切事情上都有天賦。一個成功的房地產投資商很可能因為開餐館而虧本。因此要固守自己的優勢，在沒有理性的確定判斷之前不要輕易離開自己擅長的領域。

　　：知識與美德

　　Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles.

　　Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life--these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University; I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and on the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride of man.

　　[參考譯文]

　　知識是一回事，美德是另一回事。好意並非良心，優雅並非謙讓，廣博與公正的觀點也並非信仰。哲學，無論多麼富有啟迪和深奧莫測，都無法駕馭情感，不具備有影響力的動機，不具有導致生動活潑的原理。

　　文科教育並不造就基督教徒抑或天主教徒，而是造就了紳士。造就一個紳士誠為美事。有教養的才智，優雅的情趣，正直、公正而冷靜的頭腦，高貴而彬彬有禮的舉止--這些是與淵博的學識生來固有的品質, 它也是大學教育的目的。對此我提倡之，並將加以闡釋和堅持。然而我要說的是，它們仍然不能確保聖潔，或甚至不能保證誠實。它們可以附庸於世故的俗人，附庸於玩世不恭的浪子。唉，當他們用它偽裝起來時，就更增加了他們外表上的冷靜、快活和魅力。就其本身而言，它們似乎已遠非其本來面目，它們似乎一遠看的美德，經久久細察方可探知。因此它們受到廣泛的責難，指責其虛飾與偽善。我要強調，這絕非是因為其自身有什麼過錯，而是因為教授們和讚美者們一味地把它們弄得面目全非，並且還要殷勤地獻上其本身並不希冀的讚頌。如若用剃刀就可以開採出花崗岩，用絲線即能繫泊位船隻，那麼，也許你才能希望用人的知識和理性這樣美妙而優雅的東西去與人類的情感與高傲那樣的龐然大物進行抗爭。

　　：選擇樂觀

　　Choose Optimism--By Rich De Vos

　　If you expect something to turn out badly, it probably will.Pessimism is seldom disappointed. But the same principle also works in reverse. If you expect good things to happen, they usually do! There seems to be a natural cause-and-effect relationship between optimism and success.

　　Optimism and pessimism are both powerful forces, and each of us must choose which we want to shape our outlook and our expectations. There is enough good and bad in everyone’s life — ample sorrow and happiness, sufficient joy and pain — to find a rational basis for either optimism or pessimism. We can choose to laugh or cry, bless or curse. It’s our decision: From which perspective do we want to view life? Will we look up in hope or down in despair?

　　I believe in the upward look. I choose to highlight the positive and slip right over the negative. I am an optimist by choice as much as by nature. Sure, I know that sorrow exists. I am in my 70s now, and I’ve lived through more than one crisis. But when all is said and done, I find that the good in life far outweighs the bad.

　　An optimistic attitude is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. The way you look at life will determine how you feel, how you perform, and how well you will get along with other people. Conversely, negative thoughts, attitudes, and expectations feed on themselves; they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Pessimism creates a dismal place where no one wants to live.

　　Years ago, I drove into a service station to get some gas. It was a beautiful day, and I was feeling great. As I walked into the station to pay for the gas, the attendant said to me, “How do you feel?” That seemed like an odd question, but I felt fine and told him so. “You don’t look well,” he replied. This took me completely by surprise. A little less confidently, I told him that I had never felt better. Without hesitation, he continued to tell me how bad I looked and that my skin appeared yellow.

　　By the time I left the service station, I was feeling a little uneasy. About a block away, I pulled over to the side of the road to look at my face in the mirror. How did I feel? Was I jaundiced? Was everything all right? By the time I got home, I was beginning to feel a little queasy. Did I have a bad liver? Had I picked up some rare disease?

　　The next time I went into that gas station, feeling fine again, I figured out what had happened. The place had recently been painted a bright, bilious yellow, and the light reflecting off the walls made everyone inside look as though they had hepatitis! I wondered how many other folks had reacted the way I did. I had let one short conversation with a total stranger change my attitude for an entire day. He told me I looked sick, and before long, I was actually feeling sick. That single negative observation had a profound effect on the way I felt and acted.

　　The only thing more powerful than negativism is a positive affirmation, a word of optimism and hope. One of the things I am most thankful for is the fact that I have grown up in a nation with a grand tradition of optimism. When a whole culture adopts an upward look, incredible things can be accomplished. When the world is seen as a hopeful, positive place, people are empowered to attempt and to achieve.

　　[參考譯文]

　　選擇樂觀

　　假如你預期某事會有不妙的結果，結局也許就真的不妙——悲觀的想法很少落空。但這個法則反過來也同樣成立：如果你自感鴻運當頭，通常就會有好運降臨!在樂觀與成功之間似乎有一種天然的因果關係。

　　樂觀和悲觀都是強大的力量，我們每個人都必須在這兩者之間做出選擇，從而給我們對未來的展望和預期染上或明或暗的色彩。每個人的生命中都有足夠多的幸與不幸——數不清的哀傷和喜悅，歡欣與痛苦——給我們樂觀或悲觀的理由。我們可以選擇哭或是笑，祝福或是詛咒。我們可以選擇用什麼樣的眼光去看待生活——是昂首去尋找希望抑或垂頭在絕望中逡巡。

　　我喜歡向上看。我會把注意力集中在生活中光明的一面，忽略那些陰暗的角落。天性和個人選擇是我成了一個樂觀主義者。當然，我知道生命中總有傷痛，年逾古稀的我曾不止一次經歷過危機。但是，當一切塵埃落定，我發現生命中的美好遠遠比醜惡為多。

　　樂觀的態度不是一種奢侈品;它是我們生活的必需。你看待生活的方式將決定你的感受、你的表現，以及你與他人相處得怎樣。反過來，悲觀的想法、態度和預期也會自成因果：它們是能自我實現的預言。悲觀會製造出無人願望的黑暗處所。

　　幾年前，我驅車去一個加油站加油，那天天氣很好，我的心情也不錯。當我走進加油站付油錢時，服務員問我：“你感覺怎樣?”問題問得有點古怪，我感覺很好，於是便照實回答了他。他又說：“你氣色不好。”他的話讓我非常吃驚。我告訴他我的感覺從未像現在這麼好，但說此話時已不像原來那麼底氣十足。而他則毫無顧忌的繼續大講我的氣色是如何的差勁，還說我膚色發黃。

　　在離開加油站的時候，我覺得有點心神不寧。駛出一個街區之後，我把車泊在路旁，從鏡中審視自己的臉。我怎麼了?我得了黃疸病嗎?是不是有什麼異常?等我回到家裡，我開始覺得有點噁心。我的肝臟出了毛病嗎?是不是染上了什麼怪病?

　　再次光顧那麼加油站的時候，我已恢復正常，感覺良好，而且明白了各種蹊蹺。這個地方不久前把牆漆成了一種鮮亮的、膽汁般的黃色，這顏色使置身其中的每一個人都給映得像得了肝炎。不知道有多少人也曾有過和我相似的經歷。和每一個完全陌生的人的一次短短對話竟然改變了我整整一天的心情。他說我面有病容，很快我就真的覺得不舒服，僅僅是一個消極的看法就大大影響了我感覺和行為的方式。

　　唯一比否定態度更有力量的是一個積極的肯定，一句充滿樂觀與希望的話語。最讓我心存感激的事情之一就是我生長在一個有著光榮的樂觀主義傳統的國度。當一種文化從整體上採取了一種積極向上的態度，不可思議的事情也能變成現實。當人們把世界看作一個光明與希望之地，它們將被賦予努力進取和成就功業的力量。