竞技场上的人
我们总有太多原因感到脆弱和恐惧,因而不得不选择了回避——想要的东西,希望尝试的事情,渴望成为的样子——变得困惑,止步不前。追求必然伴随困难,然而击败我们的往往不是那些困难本身,而是它所带来的恐惧——对失败的恐惧,对无能的恐惧,对不被接受的恐惧,对一切没有意义的恐惧。面对恐惧大概是最困难的心理过程没有之一。 评判、讥讽、贬低虽不能伤人毫毛,却可以刺伤人的心灵。在这个相见不能拔枪的时代,男女老少都可以投入以言语为武器的战争,也同时都可以是其受害者。也许我们比以往任何时候都更需要珍视、保护自己的心,为自己也为亲近的人。 《竞技场上的人》 The Man In The Arena 节选于演讲“共和国的公民”,索邦,巴黎,1910年4月23日。 (美国第二十六任总统西奥多·罗斯福) Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910 荣誉不属于批评者,那些指出强者如何跌倒、或实干者哪里本可以做得更好的人。 It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. 荣誉属于真正站在竞技场上的人,属于脸庞沾满灰尘、汗水和鲜血的人,属于顽强奋斗的人,属于犯错,一次又一次失败的人,因为没有不伴随错误或缺陷的成就。 The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; 然而实际拼搏的人,懂得极大热情和投入的人,投身于有价值的事业的人,最终或如愿取得伟大成就,而即使遭遇失败也不乏胆量,因此其所处将永不同于冷漠且胆小、未经胜败洗礼者。 but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. 原文网址:http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html