【赫临译笔】如果我休息，我就会生锈

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ヮ成熟、羙°

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发表于 2013-7-25 09:33:41 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

本帖最后由ヮ成熟、羙° 于 2013-7-26 08:03 编辑

如果我休息，我就会生锈

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如果我休息，我就会生锈。这句刻在一把古老的钥匙上的铭文，对于那些稍稍懈怠的人是一句极好的箴言。即使非常勤劳的人也可以把这句话作为一种大有裨益的提醒。正如一把废弃不用的钥匙上的铁，迟早会锈迹斑斑。如果一个人允许他的天赋闲置的话，那他最终肯定无法胜任他该做的工作。

那些想达到伟人所达到并保持的高度的人，必须经常使用自己的各种天赋以使它们保持闪亮。只有这样，他们才能打开知识的道道门，打开守卫各个行业入口的大门，进入人类努力的各个领域，这包括科学，艺术，文学，农业等等。

勤劳使得打开成就宝藏的钥匙闪闪发光。如果休•米勒在采石场辛苦劳作一天后，把晚上的时间用于休息和娱乐的话，他就永远不会成为一个伟大的地质学家。如果著名数学家爱德蒙•斯通把他的业余时间用于无所事事的话，他就永远不会出版一本数学词典并找到打开数学这一学科大门的钥匙。如果苏格兰小伙弗格森在山坡放羊时，允许他那忙碌的大脑睡觉，而不是用一串珠子来计算星星的位置的话，他永远也不会成为一个著名的天文学家。

劳动战胜一切，不是指的那种不经常的，断续的，指向不合理的劳动，而是指的那种忠诚的，不懈的，指向合理的日常努力。正如自由需要长期的警惕作代价一样，崇高的持续的成功需要长期的勤劳作代价。

If I Rest, I Rust

The significant inscription found on an old key---“If I rest, I rust”---would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.

Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture---every department of human endeavor.

Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.

Labor vanquishes all---not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.