The Strenuous Life艱辛的人生
Theodore Roosevelt
A life of slothful ease， a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things， is as little worthy of a nation as an individual.
We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious efforts， the man who never wrongs his neighbor， who is prompt to help a friend， but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail， but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past. A man can be freed from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright， and the man still does actual work， though of a different kind， whether as a writer or a general， whether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure， he shows he deserves his good fortune.
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But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labor as a period， not of preparation， but of mere enjoyment， even though perhaps not of vicious enjoyment， he shows that he is simply a cumberer on the earth”s surface; and he surely unfits himself to hold his own place with his fellows， if the need to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life， and， above all， it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world.
As it is with the individual， so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things， to win glorious triumphs， even though checkered by failure， than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much， because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
艱辛的人生
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［美國］西奧多•羅斯福
［西奧多•羅斯福（1858－1919），美國第26任總統(tǒng)、作家、探險家和軍事家，畢業(yè)于哈佛大學(xué) ，曾發(fā)表《勤奮地生活》演說，旨在針對19世紀(jì)末美國驕奢淫逸、貪圖享樂之風(fēng)盛行，籍此文以遏制當(dāng)時的腐敗現(xiàn)象，本文《艱辛的人生》也反映了他這種反對怠惰安逸、崇尚奮斗的人生思想。］
一種怠惰安逸的生活，一種僅僅是由于缺少追尋偉大事物的愿望或能力而導(dǎo)致的悠閑，這對國家與個人都是沒有價值的。
我們不欣賞那種怯懦安逸的人。我們欽佩那種表現(xiàn)出奮力向上的人，那種永不屈待鄰人，能隨時幫助朋友，但是也具有那些剛健的性質(zhì)，足以在實際生活的嚴(yán)酷斗爭中獲取勝利的人。失敗是艱難的，但是從不曾努力去爭取成功，卻更為糟糕。在人的一生中，任何的收獲都要通過努力去得到。目前不用作任何的努力，只是意味著在過去有過努力的積儲。一個人不必工作，除非他或他的祖先曾經(jīng)努力工作過，并取得了豐厚的收獲。如果他能把換取到的此類的自由加以正確地運用，仍然做些實際的工作，盡管那些工作是屬于另一類的，不論是作一名作家還是將軍，不論是在政界還是在探險和冒險方面做些事情，都表明了他沒有辜負(fù)自己的好運。 <a hRef=htTps://Www.EuZw.nE/miNifoRm.Html>蘇州初中語文補(bǔ)習(xí)</a>
但是，如果他將這段不需從事實際工作的自由時期，不用于準(zhǔn)備，而僅僅是用于享樂（盡管他所從事的或許并非邪惡的享樂），那就表明了他只是地球表面上的一個贅疣；而且他肯定無法在同僚之中維持自己的地位，如果那種需要再度出現(xiàn)的話。安逸的生活終究并不是一種令人很滿意的生活，而且，最主要的是，過那種生活的人最終肯定沒有能力擔(dān)當(dāng)世上之重任。
于個人如此，對國家也是這樣。有人說一個沒有歷史的國家是得天獨厚的，這是卑鄙的謊言。一種得天獨厚的優(yōu)越感來源于一個國家具有光榮的歷史。冒險去從事偉大的事業(yè)，贏得光榮的勝利，即使其中摻雜著失敗，那也遠(yuǎn)勝于與那些既沒有享受多大快樂也沒有遭受多大痛苦的平庸之輩為伍（因為他們生活在一個既享受不到勝利也遭遇不到失敗的灰暗境界里）。
《雙語美文賞析:艱辛的人生》添加時間：2024-12-14；更新時間：2025-03-09
