英语励志美文摘抄学习

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The Hidden Vitality of Human Beings人类潜在的活力

by Newbold Morris

What has been the most appealing part of the development of the American Dream? Well, to some of us, perhaps, the most dramatic phase of our development has been the ceaseless energy of the pioneers, the era of empire building, and, finally, the apotheosis of free enterprise, our industrial development. Others are thrilled by the capacity of the American people—normally peace loving and slow to anger—to organize in an all-out effort to resist threats to their freedom.

Yes, all of these things stir the imagination, but to me they are the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual vitality. Some of us came to this continent three centuries ago and take great pride in tradition. Others may have landed at the new international airport at Idlewild only yesterday. But nearly all of us came as fugitives from the tyrannies and hatreds of the old world.

I believe America has vitality because of a restless force we call “human endeavor.” It is this endeavor which has resulted in the lifting of averages and the spreading of opportunities.

It is based on the conviction that once an individual has a fair start, he or she can rise to great heights, regardless of circumstances of birth or racial origin. This is my conviction, and it is, in other words, a belief in the human spirit. It is for those who are strong to help the weak; for those who are sound in mind and body to help those afflicted; for those who live in the sunlight to dispel shadows wherever they lengthen.

To me, this is what life is all about. It is why I believe that when we decided upon a system of government-subsidized education, we passed an important milestone in our history; and that when we adopted public health programs to fight the ravages of disease, to reduce infant mortality, and even to afford prenatal care for expectant mothers, we were continuing along the road toward to the goals in which I believe.

I feel that we took another step towards a better world when we adopted Workman’s Compensation laws, Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and Aid to Dependent Children.

And I believe that we were doing even more to realize these goals when, awakening to the social evils of cheerless, unsanitary, unsafe tenements, we decided to tax ourselves in order to subsidize low-rent, public housing for persons of low income. I could not be true to my beliefs about my duty towards my fellow man if I did not work for these things. Some call our civilization a “Christian” civilization. Others call it “democracy”. When it succeeds, it is a little bit of both; and when it really works, we need not have fear of threats to our freedom.

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The Greeks Had an Answer 希腊人的回答

by Gilbert Murray

In trying to say what I really believe, I cannot recite one of the traditional creeds, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or the like. Most of us are born into one of them, and which it is depends simply on what country and what parents we come from. A great mystery surrounds us, in which the human mind can at best catch glimpses and express itself in metaphors.

For myself, I come on my mother’s side from a family of teachers, almost of schoolmarms, and grew up occasionally—accordingly—a good, obedient little boy who kept all the rules. On my father’s side, however, I came of a line of Irish rebels, always suspicious of authorities and deeply prejudiced in favor of the underdog.

I loved new ideas and poetry; so naturally in my teens, I fell deeply under the influence of Shelley. “Prometheus Unbound” was for some years to me almost a sacred book. Such poetry and such a religion, proclaiming a rejection of all the oppressors who misrule the world, all the superstitions that cripple man’s mind and prevent his going straight as the crow flies towards perfection. An illusion, of course. Perhaps I was rather slow in growing out of it.

The other main influence that has gone to forming my beliefs was that of ancient Greece. I could hardly have escaped it, having been a professor of Greek most of my life, from twenty-three to seventy. It got hold of me first, I suppose, by the charm of its poetry.

Then, it seemed to me that the great Greek thinkers were mostly facing the same problems as ourselves, but facing them more freely and frankly, not hampered by all the complexities and inherited conventions that confuse us today. They did sincerely and simply try to understand truth and justice and the good life.

Then, at last, in 1914 came the shock of the Great War, bringing for me, as for so many people, not any change of belief but a great change of focus.

The prevention of war became the thing that mattered most in the world. I took part in the founding of the League of Nations, and for thirty years now, I have been working in that cause, learning, I think, a good deal by the way.

It needed more than enthusiasm. It needed patience and experience and commonsense. It needed day by day far more knowledge than I possessed. But I found good guides and companions. I learned to think less of abstract principles and less still of party catchwords and slogans.

I have found among all parties, and all religions, men inspired by the great movement that leads toward peace, outward and inward. And I feel much truth in an old Greek philosopher’s saying: “The helping of man by man is God.”

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A Shining Day Will Come 光明的日子终会到来

by Saul K Padover

A candid statement of faith becomes, for me, a concentrated spiritual autobiography. My fundamental beliefs are the products of three converging influences that have been silently at work within my personality: history, America, and Jefferson.

As a student of history, I have been impressed again and again by man’s potentialities for good and evil. I spent my childhood in Vienna. The atmosphere of the dying Austrian Empire made me sensitive to comparative politics and history. Gradually the conviction grew in me that man everywhere, regardless of race or region or climate, is his own worst enemy or best friend. By and large, human beings themselves create their own heavens or hells. They do so because, of all the creatures on Earth, they alone have the intelligence and imagination to change their environment.

My first American home was Detroit. This great middle-western metropolis, the very essence of 20th century American industrialism, stimulated my imagination. From the inspiring history of America, I have learned what good will, intelligence, and creative application can accomplish. It is one of my beliefs that the opportunities of social and human well being in America are still inexhaustible.

And this brings me to Thomas Jefferson. His influence on my spiritual and intellectual life has been continuous and pervasive. I think I know by now every word he has ever written. I feel inside me the very rhythm of his thought. His life and personality have been, to me, sources of spiritual strength and inspiration. Jefferson never failed me in any crisis.

What I learned from him, in brief, has been an abiding faith in human potentialities. I would call this the “religion of democratic humanism.” Following Jefferson’s optimistic faith, despite examples of horrors and bloodshed in recent times, I believe that man can and should be kind and just to his fellows; that man can and should strive for constant spiritual and social improvement and to keep the avenues of opportunity always open for himself and his fellow men. To state it negatively, I believe with all my heart that cruelty, injustice, and intolerance are social crimes that should be punished as severely as physical ones.

It is a cardinal article of faith with me that there is no limit to what men in society can achieve. In this context, I believe that the good, just, and happy life cannot be accomplished in any society where power, political or economic, is monopolized in the hands of a single person or single group. I hold, with Jefferson, that only inside a democratic society, even if it is imperfect, can human beings make a successful effort to attain happiness.

And finally, I believe that all these human goals are attainable by men of all races and creeds; and that, if we use our social intelligence and the ample tools of science, a day will come when there is no bloodshed, hatred, and diseases, and no slums and no poverty, and no destructive fears of the unknown.