30篇经典英语背诵文章
Youth i it
it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and
it is a matter of the will, a quality of the
imagination, a v it is the freshness of the
deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental
predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for
adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60
more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of
years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but
to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust
bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in
every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing
appetite for what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the
center of your heart and my heart, there i so
long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, courage and power
from man and from the infinite, so long as you are
When your aerials are down, and
your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of
pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your
aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may
die young at 80.
Three Days to
See(Excerpts)&
Three Days to See
All of us have read thrilling
stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to
live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24
hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the
doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I
speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned
criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly
delimited.
Such stories set us thinking,
wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What
events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into
those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?
Sometimes I have thought it
would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die
tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of
life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness
of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us
in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.
There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of
“Eat, drink, and be merry”. But most people would be chastened by
the certainty of impending death.
In stories the doomed hero is
usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but
almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more
appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual
values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived,
in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they
Most of us, however, take life
for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we
picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant
health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The
days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty
tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward
The same lethargy, I am afraid,
characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the
deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold
blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation
apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But
those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom
make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and
ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration
and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being
grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious
of health until we are ill.
I have often thought it would
be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for
a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would
make him more a silence would teach him the
joys of sound.
Companionship of
Companionship of
A man may usually be known by
the books he reads as well as by
for there is
a companionship of boo and one should always
live in the best company, whether it be of books or of
A good book may be among the
best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it
will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of
companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity
or distress. It always receives us wi amusing
and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in
Men often discover their
affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just
as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which
both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ‘Love me, love
my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my book.”
The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel,
and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They
live in him together, and he in them.
A good book is often the best
urn of a life enshrining the best that
the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of
his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the
golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our
constant companions and comforters.
Books possess an essence of
immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human
effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no
account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they
first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago. What was then
said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the
printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out the bad
for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is
really good.
Books introduce us into the
they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds
that have ever lived. We hear wh we see the as
if th we sympathize with them, enjoy with
them, their experience becomes ours, and we feel
as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which
they describe.
The great and good do not die,
even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad.
The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which on still
If I Rest,I
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
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
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- 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.
It is not difficult to imagine
a world short of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world:
with out demands, without abrasions, without disappointments.
People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would
not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would
never enter in. conflict would be eliminated, tension become a
thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art
would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its
functions. Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die
of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety
would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long
departed from the human heart.
Ah, how unrelieved boring life
There is a strong view that
holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does
this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is
at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no
significance alongside the force of movements and events now not
all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth
cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon
enough learns on one’s own. But even the most cynical secretly
admit that achievement counts for a great
and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women
are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view
that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to
remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and
regard for posterity.
We do not choose to be born. We
do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch,
the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our
upbringing. We do not, most of us, nor do we choose
the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of
choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in
cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We
decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide
that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we
refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to
our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to
make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our
lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition
What I have Lived
What I Have Lived
Three passions, simple but
overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love,
the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of
mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and
thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish,
reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first,
because it brings ecstasy---ecstasy so great that I would often
have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this
joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness---that
terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over
the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I
have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen,
in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that
saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though
it might seem too good for human life, this is what---at last---I
have found.
With equal passion I have
sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I
have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to
apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above
the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have
Love and knowledge, so far as
they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always it
brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my
heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless
old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of
loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life
should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too
This has been my life. I have
found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance
were offered me.
When Love Beckons
When Love Beckons
When love beckons to you,
follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings
enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions
may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though
his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the
For even as love crowns you so
shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for
your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your
tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to
our roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
But if, in your fear, you would
seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for
you that you cover& your nakedness and
pass out of love’s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where
you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not
all of your tears. Love gives naught but it self and takes naught
but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for
love is sufficient unto love.
Love has no other desire but to
fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be
your desires:
To melt and be like a running
brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much
tenderness.
To be wounded by your own
And to bleed willingly and
To wake at dawn with a winged
heart and give thanks for a
To rest at the noon hour and
meditate love’
To return home at eventide with
And then to sleep with a payer
for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your
The Road to
The Road to Success
It is well that young men
should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate
positions. Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a
serious responsibility thrust upon them at the very threshold of
their career. They were introduced to the broom, and spent the
first hours of their business lives sweeping out the office. I
notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, and our
young men unfortunately miss that salutary branch of business
education. But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any
morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him
will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. It does not hurt
the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary. I was one of
those sweepers myself.
Assuming that you have all
obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is
“aim high”. I would not give a fig for the young man who does not
already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm.
Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or
foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how
extensive. Say to yourself, “My place is at the top.” Be king in
your dreams.
And here is the prime condition
of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, thought, and
capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged.
Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to
lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and
know the most about it.
The concerns which fail are
those which have scattered their capital, which means that they
have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or
that, or the other, here there, and everywhere. “Don’t put all your
eggs in one basket.” is all wrong. I tell you to “put all your eggs
in one basket, and then watch that basket.” Look round you and take
notice, men who do that not often fail. It is easy to watch and
carry the one basket. It is trying to carry too many baskets that
breaks most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must
put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. One
fault of the American businessman is lack of
concentration.
To summarize what I have said:
ne do not touch liquor,
never indorse beyond
yo make the firm’ break
orders a put all your eggs in one
basket, a expenditure a
lastly, be not impatient, for as Emerson says, “no one can cheat
you out of ultimate success but yourselves.”
On Meeting the
Celebrated
On Meeting the
Celebrated
I have always wondered at the
passion many people have to meet the celebrated. The prestige you
acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men
proves only that you are yourself of small account. The celebrated
develop a technique to deal with the persons they come across. They
show the world a mask, often an impressive on, but take care to
conceal their real selves. They play the part that is expected from
them, and with practice learn to play it very well, but you are
stupid if you think that this public performance of theirs
corresponds with the man within.
I have been attached, deeply
attached, but I have been interested in men in
general not for their own sakes, but for the sake of my work. I
have not, as Kant enjoined, regarded each man as an end in himself,
but as material that might be useful to me as a writer. I have been
more concerned with the obscure than with the famous. They are more
often themselves. They have had no need to create a figure to
protect themselves from the world or to impress it. Their
idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited
circle of their activity, and since they have never been in the
public eye it has never occurred to them that they have anything to
conceal. They display their oddities because it has never struck
them that they are odd. And after all it is with the common run of
men that we
kings, dictators, commercial
magnates are from our point of view very unsatisfactory. To write
about them is a venture that has often tempted writers, but the
failure that has attended their efforts shows that such beings are
too exceptional to form a proper ground for a work of art. They
cannot be made real. The ordinary is the writer’s richer field. Its
unexpectedness, its singularity, its infinite variety afford
unending material. The great man is too
the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is
inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in
store for you. For my part I would much sooner spend a month on a
desert island with a veterinary surgeon than with a prime
The 50-Percent
Theory of Life
The 50-Percent Theory of
I believe in the 50-percent
theory. Half the time things ar the other
half, they re worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes
time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me
the perspective to deal with the surprises of the
Let’s benchmark the parameters:
yes, I will die. I’ve dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best
friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths
have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad
stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale.
Then there are those high
points: romance and marriage having a child
and doing those Dad things like coaching my son’s baseball team,
paddling around the creek in the boat while he’s swimming with the
dogs, discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his
kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship
from a scattered pile of Legos.
But there is a vast meadow of
life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop
acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the
50-percent theory.
One spring I planted corn too
early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed. I felt
chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal---the worst
heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air- the
the money gone. I
was living lyrics from a country tune---music I loathed. Only a
surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits.
Looking back on that horrible
summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely
offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn’t last long. I am owed and
savor the halcyon times. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty
surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50-percent theory
even helps me see hope beyond my Royals’ recent slump, a field of
struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an
October harvest.
For that on blistering summer,
the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed
pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain
spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib
overflowed with corn---fat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled
with kernels from heel to tip---while my neighbors’ fields yielded
only brown, empty husks.
Although plantings past may
have fallen below the 50-percent expectation, and they probably
will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that
flourishes during the drought.
What is Your
Recovery Rate?
What is Your Recovery
What is your recovery rate? How
long does it take you to recover from actions and behaviors that
upset you? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? The longer it takes you to
recover, the more influence that incident has on your actions, and
the less able you are to perform to your personal best. In a
nutshell, the longer it takes you to recover, the weaker you are
and the poorer your performance.
You are well aware that you
need to exercise to keep the body fit and, no doubt, accept that a
reasonable measure of health is the speed in which your heart and
respiratory system recovers after exercise. Likewise the faster you
let go of an issue that upsets you, the faster you return to an
equilibrium, the healthier you will be. The best example of this
behavior is found with professional sportspeople. They know that
the faster they can forget an incident or missd opportunity and get
on with the game, the better their performance. In fact, most
measure the time it takes them to overcome and forget an incident
in a game and most reckon a recovery rate of 30 seconds is too
Imagine yourself to be an actor
in a play on the stage. Your aim is to play your part to the best
of your ability. You have been given a script and at the end of
each sentence is a ful stop. Each time you get to the end of the
sentence you start a new one and although the next sentence is
related to the last it is not affected by it. Your job is to
deliver each sentence to the best of your ability.
Don’t live your life in the
past! Learn to live in the present, to overcome the past. Stop the
past from influencing your daily life. Don’t allow thoughts of the
past to reduce your personal best. Stop the past from interfering
with your life. Learn to recover quickly.
Remember: Rome wasn’t built in
a day. Reflect on your recovery rate each day. Every day before you
go to bed, look at your progress. Don’t lie in bed saying to you,
“I did that wrong.” “I should have done better there.” No. look at
your day and note when you made an effort to place a full stop
after an incident. This is a success. You are taking control of
your life. Remember this is a step by step process. This is not a
make-over. You are undertaking real change here. Your aim: reduce
the time spent in recovery.
The way forward?
Live in the present. Not in the
precedent.
Clear Your Mental
Clear Your Mental
Think about the last time you
felt a negative emotion---like stress, anger, or frustration. What
was going through your mind as you were going through that
negativity? Was your mind cluttered with thoughts? Or was it
paralyzed, unable to think?
The next time you find yourself
in the middle of a very stressful time, or you feel angry or
frustrated, stop. Yes, that’s right, stop. Whatever you’re doing,
stop and sit for one minute. While you’re sitting there, completely
immerse yourself in the negative emotion.
Allow that emotion to consume
you. Allow yourself one minute to truly feel that emotion. Don’t
cheat yourself here. Take the entire minute---but only one
minute---to do nothing else but feel that emotion.
When the minute is over, ask
yourself, “Am I wiling to keep holding on to this negative emotion
as I go through the rest of the day?”
Once you’ve allowed yourself to
be totally immersed in the emotion and really fell it, you will be
surprised to find that the emotion clears rather
If you feel you need to hold on
to the emotion for a little longer, that is OK. Allow yourself
another minute to feel the emotion.
When you feel you’ve had enough
of the emotion, ask yourself if you’re willing to carry that
negativity with you for the rest of the day. If not, take a deep
breath. As you exhale, release all that negativity with your
This exercise seems
simple---almost too simple. But, it is very effective. By allowing
that negative emotion the space to be truly felt, you are dealing
with the emotion rather than stuffing it down and trying not to
feel it. You are actually taking away the power of the emotion by
giving it the space and attention it needs. When you immerse
yourself in the emotion, and realize that it is only emotion, it
loses its control. You can clear your head and proceed with your
Try it. Next time you’re in the
middle of a negative emotion, give yourself the space to feel the
emotion and see what happens. Keep a piece of paper with you that
says the following:
Stop. Immerse for one minute.
Do I want to keep this negativity? Breath deep, exhale, release.
This will remind you of the
steps to the process. R take the time you need to really
immerse yourself in the emotion. Then, when you feel you’ve felt it
enough, release it---really let go of it. You will be surprised at
how quickly you can move on from a negative situation and get to
what you really want to do!
The days that make us
happy make us wise.”----John Masefield
when I first read this line by
England’s Poet Laureate, it startled me. What did Masefield mean?
Without thinking about it much, I had always assumed that the
opposite was true. But his sober assurance was arresting. I could
not forget it.
Finally, I seemed to grasp his
meaning and realized that here was a profound observation. The
wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception, not
fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom, and without
the blind spots caused by fear.
Active happiness---not mere
satisfaction or contentment ---often comes suddenly, like an April
shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what kind of
wisdom has accompanied it. T bird songs are
the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable
and more forgivable. Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses
correcting your spiritual vision.
Nor are the insights of
happiness limited to what is near around you. Unhappy, with your
thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is cut
short as though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles.
The long vista is there for the
seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about you----people,
thoughts, emotions, pressures---are now fitted into the larger
scene. Everything assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the
beginning of wisdom.
The Goodness of
The Goodness of Life
Though there is much to be
concerned about, there is far, far more for which to be thankful.
Though life’s goodness can at times be overshadowed, it is never
outweighed.
For every single act that is
senselessly destructive, there are thousands more small, quiet acts
of love, kindness and compassion. For every person who seeks to
hurt, there are many, many more who devote their lives to helping
and to healing.
There is goodness to life that
cannot be denied.
In the most magnificent vistas
and in the smallest details, look closely, for that goodness always
comes shining through.
There si no limit to the
goodness of life. It grows more abundant with each new encounter.
The more you experience and appreciate the goodness of life, the
more there is to be lived.
Even when the cold winds blow
and the world seems to be cov ered in foggy shadows, the goodness
of life lives on. Open your eyes, open your heart, and you will see
that goodness is everywhere.
Though the goodness of life
seems at times to suffer setbacks, it always endures. For in the
darkest moment it becomes vividly clear that life is a priceless
treasure. And so the goodness of life is made even stronger by the
very things that would oppose it.
Time and time again when you
feared it was gone forever you found that the goodness of life was
really only a moment away. Around the next corner, inside every
moment, the goodness of life is there to surprise and delight
Take a moment to let the
goodness of life touch your spirit and calm your thoughts. Then,
share your good fortune with another. For the goodness of life
grows more and more magnificent each time it is given
Though the problems constantly
scream for attention and the conflicts appear to rage ever
stronger, the goodness of life grows stronger still, quietly,
peacefully, with more purpose and meaning than ever
Facing the Enemies
Facing the Enemies
We are not born with courage,
but neither are we born with fear. Maybe some of our fears are
brought on by your own experiences, by what someone has told you,
by what you’ve read in the papers. Some fears are valid, like
walking alone in a bad part of town at two o’clock in the morning.
But once you learn to avoid that situation, you won’t need to live
in fear of it.
Fears, even the most basic
ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear can destroy fortunes.
Fear can destroy relationships. Fear, if left unchecked, can
destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurking inside
Let me tell you about five of
the other enemies we face from within. The first enemy that you’ve
got to destroy before it destroys you is indifference. What a
tragic disease this is! “Ho-hum, let it slide. I’ll just drift
along.” Here’s one problem with drifting: you can’t drift your way
to the to of the mountain.
The second enemy we face is
indecision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity and enterprise.
It will steal your chances for a better future. Take a sword to
this enemy.
The third enemy inside is
doubt. Sure, there’s room for healthy skepticism. You can’t believe
everything. But you also can’t let doubt take over. Many people
doubt the past, doubt the future, doubt each other, doubt the
government, doubt the possibilities nad doubt the opportunities.
Worse of all, they doubt themselves. I’m telling you, doubt will
destroy your life and your chances of success. It will empty both
your bank account and& your heart. Doubt is
an enemy. Go after it. Get rid of it.
The fourth enemy within is
worry. We’ve all got to worry some. Just don’t let conquer you.
Instead, let it alarm you. Worry can be useful. If you step off the
curb in New York City and a taxi is coming, you’ve got to worry.
But you can’t let worry loose like a mad dog that drives you into a
small corner. Here’s what you’ve got to do with your worries: drive
them into a small corner. Whatever is out to get you, you’ve got to
get it. Whatever is pushing on you, you’ve got to push
The fifth interior enemy is
overcaution. It is the timid approach to life. Timidity is not a
it’s an illness. If you let it go, it’ll conquer you. Timid
people don’t get promoted. They don’t advance and grow and become
powerful in the marketplace. You’ve got to avoid
overcaution.
Do battle with the enemy. Do
battle with your fears. Build your courage to fight what’s holding
ou back, what’s keeping you from your goals and dreams. Be
courageous in your life and in your pursuit of the things you want
and the person you want to become.
Abundance is a Life
Abundance is a Life
Abundance is a life style, a
way of living your life. It isn’t something you buy now and then or
pull down from the cupboard, dust off and use once or twice, and
then return to the cupboard.
appears in your physiology, your value system, and carries its own
set of beliefs. You walk with it, sleep with it, bath with it, feel
with it, and need to maintain and take care of it as
Abundance doesn’t always
require money. Many people live with all that money can buy yet
live empty inside. Abundance begins inside with some main
self-ingredients, like love, care, kindness and gentleness,
thoughtfulness and compassion. Abundance is a state of being. It
radiates outward. It shines like the sun among the many moons in
the world.
Being from the brightness of
abundance doesn’t allow the darkness to appear or be in the path
unless a choice to allow it to. The true state of abundance doesn’t
have room for lies or games normally played. The space is too full
of abundance. This may be a challenge because we still need to
shine for other to see.
Abundance is seeing people for
their gifts and not what they lack or could be. Seeing all things
for their gifts and not what they lack.
Start by knowing what your
abundances are, fill that space with you, and be fully present from
that state of being. Your profession of choice is telling you of
knowing and possibilities. That is their gift. Consultants and
customer service professionals have the ministrative assistants and
virtual assistants have an abundance of coordination and time
management. Abundance is all around you, and all within. See what
love yourself for what it is, not what you’re missing, or
what that can be better, but& for what it is at
this present moment.
Be in a state of abundance of
what you already have. I guar it always is
buried but there. Breathe them in as if they are the air you
breathe because they are yours. Let go of anything that isn’t
abundant for the time being. Name the shoe boxes in your closet
with you pull from them every morning if
needed. Know they are there.
Learning to trust in your own
abundance is required. When you begin to be within your own space
of abundance, whatever you need will appear whenever you need it.
That’s just the way the higher powers set this universe up to work.
Trust the universal energy. The knowing of it all will humble you
to its power yet let the brightness of you shine everywhere it
needs to. Just by being from a state of abundance, it is being
Human Life a
Human Life a Poem
I think that, from a biological
standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem. It has its own
rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay. It begins
with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying
awkwardly to adapt itself to mature society, with its young
passions and follies, its
then it reaches a
manhood of intense activities, profiting from experience and
learning more about soci at middle age, there
is a slight easing of tension, a mellowing of character like the
ripening of fruit or the mellowing of good wine, and the gradual
acquiring of a more tolerant, more cynical and at the same time a
k then In the sunset of our life, the
endocrine glands decrease their activity, and if we have a true
philosophy of old age and have ordered our life pattern according
to it, it is for us the age of peace and security and leisure and
finally, life flickers out and one goes into eternal
sleep, never to wake up again.
One should be able to sense the
beauty of this rhythm of life, to appreciate, as we do in grand
symphonies, its main theme, its strains of conflict and the final
resolution. The movements of these cycles are very much the same in
a normal life, but the music must be provided by the individual
himself. In some souls, the discordant note becomes harsher and
harsher and finally overwhelms or submerges the main melody.
Sometimes the discordant note gains so much power that the music
can no longer go on, and the individual shoots himself with a
pistol or jump into a river. But that is because his original
leitmotif has been hopelessly over-showed through the lack of a
good self-education. Otherwise the normal human life runs to its
normal end in kind of dignified movement and procession. There are
sometimes in many of us too many staccatos or impetuosos, and
because the tempo is wrong, the music is not
we might have more of the grand rhythm and majestic tempo o the
Ganges, flowing slowly and eternally into the sea.
No one can say that life with
childhood, manhood and old age is not a b the
day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has its seasons,
and it is good that it is so. There is no good or bad in life,
except what is good according to its own season. And if we take
this biological view of life and try to live according to the
seasons, no one but a conceited fool or an impossible idealist can
deny that human life can be lived like a poem. Shakespeare has
expressed this idea more graphically in his passage about the seven
stages of life, and a good many Chinese writers have said about the
same thing. It is curious that Shakespeare was never very
religious, or very much concerned with religion. I think this was
he took human life largely as it was, and intruded
himself as little upon the general scheme of things as he did upon
the characters of his plays. Shakespeare was like Nature itself,
and that is the greatest compliment we can pay to a writer or
thinker. He merely lived, observed life and went away.
I find it wholesome to be alone
the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best,
is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never
found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are
for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when
we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone,
let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of
space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really
diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College
is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work
alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and
not feel lonesome, be but when he comes home
at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his
thoughts, but must be where he can :see the folks,:” and recreate,
and, as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day’ and
hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all
night and most of the day without ennui and :the blues:; but he
does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at
work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his,
and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter
does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.
Society is commonly too cheap.
We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any
new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and
give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.
We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette
and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we
need not come to open war. We meet at the post-office, and at the
sociable, and about the
we live thick and are
in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think that
we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency
would suffice for all important and hearty communications. Consider
the girls in a factory---never alone, hardly in their dreams. It
would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile,
as where I live. The value of a man is not in his skin, that we
should touch him.
I have a great deal of company
especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me
suggest a few comparisons, that some one may convey an idea of my
situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that
laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that
lonely lake, I pray?
And yet it has not the blue
devils, but the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters.
The sun is alone, except in thick weather, when there sometimes
appear to be two, but one is a mock sun. god is alone---but the
devil, he is
he sees a g
he is legion. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or
dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly,
or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Millbrook, or a
weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April
shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new
Giving Life
Giving Life Meaning
Have you thought about what you
want people to say about you after you’re gone? Can you hear the
voice saying, “He was a great man.” Or “She really will be missed.”
What else do they say?
One of the strangest phenomena
of life is to engage in a work that will last long after death.
Isn’t that a lot like investing all your money so that future
generations can bare interest on it? Perhaps, yet if you look deep
in your own heart, you’ll find something drives you to make this
kind of contribution---something drives every human being to find a
purpose that lives on after death.
Do you hope to memorialize your
name? Have a name that is whispered with reverent awe? Do you hope
to have your face carved upon 50 ft of granite rock? Is the answer
really that simple? Is the purpose of lifetime contribution an
ego-driven desire for a mortal being to have an immortal name or is
it something more?
A child alive today will die
tomorrow. A baby that had the potential to be the next Einstein
will die from complication is at birth. The circumstances of life
are not set in stone. We are not all meant to live life through to
old age. We’ve grown to perceive life3 as a full cycle with a
certain number of years in between. If all of those years aren’t
lived out, it’s a tragedy. A tragedy because a human’s potential
was never realized. A tragedy because a spark was snuffed out
before it ever became a flame.
By virtue of inhabiting a body
we accept these risks. We expose our mortal flesh to the laws of
the physical environment around us. The trade off isn’t so bad when
you think about it. The problem comes when we construct mortal
fantasies of what life should be like. When life doesn’t conform to
our fantasy we grow upset, frustrated, or depressed.
W let us live. We
have the a let us experience. We have the
let us learn. The meaning of life can be grasped
in a moment. A moment so brief it often evades our
perception.
What meaning stands behind the
dramatic unfolding of life? What single truth can we grasp and hang
onto for dear life when all other truths around us seem to fade
with time?
These moments are strung
together in a series we call events. These events are strung
together in a series we call life. When we seize the moment and
bend it according to our will, a will driven by the spirit deep
inside us, then we have discovered the meaning of life, a meaning
for us that shall go on long after we depart this Earth.
Relish the
Relish the Moment
Tucked away in our
subconsciousness is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long
trip that spans the moment. We are traveling by train. Out the
windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways,
of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant
hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of
corn ad wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling
hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.
But uppermost in our minds is
the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will
pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once
we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the
pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw
puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for
loitering---waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.
When we reach the
station, that will be it!” we cry. “When I’m 18.” “When I buy a new
450SL Mercedes Benz!” “When I put the last kid through college.”
“When I have paid off the mortgage!” “When I get a promotion.”
“When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever
Sooner or later, we must
realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for
all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream.
It constantly outdistances us.
It isn’t the burdens of today
that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear
of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of
So stop pacing the aisles and
counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice
cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more
sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along.
The station will come soon enough.
The Love of
The Love of Beauty
The love of beauty is an
essential part of all healthy human nature. It is a moral quality.
The absence of it is not an assured ground of condemnation, but the
presence of it is an invariable sign of goodness of heart. In
proportion to the degree in which it is felt will probably be the
degree in which nobleness and beauty of character will be
Natural beauty is an
all-pervading presence. The universe is its temple. It unfolds into
the numberless flowers of spring. It waves in the branches of trees
and the green blades of grass. It haunts the depths of the earth
and the sea. It gleams from the hues of the shell and the precious
stone. And not only these minute objects but the oceans, the
mountains, the clouds, the stars, the rising and the setting
sun---all overflow with beauty. This beauty is so precious, and so
congenial to our tenderest and noblest feelings, that it is painful
to think of the multitude of people living in the midst of it and
yet remaining almost blind to it.
All persons should seek to
become acquainted with the beauty in nature. There is not a worm we
tread upon, nor a leaf that dances merrily as it falls before the
autumn winds, but calls for our study and admiration. The power to
appreciated beauty not merely increases our sources of
happiness---it enlarges our moral nature, too. Beauty calms our
restlessness and dispels our cares. Go into the fields or the
woods, spend a summer day by the sea or the mountains, and all your
little perplexities and anxieties will vanish. Listen to sweet
music, and your foolish fears and petty jealousies will pass away.
The beauty of the world helps us to seek and find the beauty of
The Happy door
Happiness is like a pebble
dropped into a pool to set in motion an ever-widening circle of
ripples. As Stevenson has said, being happy is a duty.
There is no exact definition of
the word happiness. Happy people are happy for all sorts of
reasons. The key is not wealth or physical well-being, since we
find beggars, invalids and so-called failures, who are extremely
Being happy is a sort of
unexpected dividend. But staying happy is an accomplishment, a
triumph of soul and character. It is not selfish to strive for it.
It is, indeed, a duty to ourselves and others.
Being unhappy is like an
infectious disease. It causes people to shrink away from the
sufferer. He soon finds himself alone, miserable and embittered.
There is, however, a cure so simple as to seem, at first glance,
if you don’t feel happy, pretend to be!
It works. Before long you will
find that instead of repelling people, you attract them. You
discover how deeply rewarding it is to be the center of wider and
wider circles of good will.
Then the make-believe becomes a
reality. You possess the secret of peace of mind, and can forget
yourself in being of service to others.
Being happy, once it is
realized as a duty and established as a habit, opens doors into
unimaginable gardens thronged with grateful friends.
Born to Win
Each human being is born as
something new, something that never existed before. Each is born
with the capacity to win at life. Each person has a unique way of
seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and thinking. Each has his or
her own unique potentials---capabilities and limitations. Each can
be a significant, thinking, aware, and creative being---a
productive person, a winner.
The word “winner” and “loser”
have many meanings. When we refer to a person as a winner, we do
not mean one who makes someone else lose. To us, a winner is one
who responds authentically by being credible, trustworthy,
responsive, and genuine, both as an individual and as a member of a
Winners do not dedicated their
lives to a concept of what they im rather,
they are themselves and as such do not use their energy putting on
a performance, maintaining pretence and manipulating others. They
are aware that there is a difference between being loving and
acting loving, between being stupid and acting stupid, between
being knowledgeable and acting knowledgeable. Winners do not need
to hide behind a mask.
Winners are not afraid to do
their own thinking and to use their own knowledge. They can
separate facts from opinions and don’t pretend to have all the
answers. They listen to others, evaluate what they say, but come to
their own conclusions. Although winners can admire and respect
other people, they are not totally defined, demolished, bound, or
awed by them.
Winners do not play “helpless”,
nor do they play the blaming game. Instead, they assume
responsibility for their own lives. They don’t give others a false
authority over them. Winners are their own bosses and know
A winner’s timing is right.
Winners respond appropriately to the situation. Their responses are
related to the message sent and preserve the significance, worth,
well-being, and dignity of the people involved. Winners know that
for everything there is a season and for every activity a
Although winners can freely
enjoy themselves, they can also postpone enjoyment, can discipline
themselves in the present to enhance their enjoyment in the future.
Winners are not afraid to go after what he wants, but they do so in
proper ways. Winners do not get their security by controlling
others. They do not set themselves up to lose.
A winner cares about the world
and its peoples. A winner is not isolated from the general problems
of society, but is concerned, compassionate, and committed to
improving the quality of life. Even in the face of national and
international adversity, a winner’s self-image is not one of a
powerless individual. A winner works to make the world a better
Work and Pleasure
To be really happy and really
safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they
must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I
will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only
aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great
knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly
get any benefit or relief. It is no use you
have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human being may be
divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those
who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death. It is
no use offering the manual laborer, tired out with a hard week’s
sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or
baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the
politician or the professional or business man, who has been
working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or
worry about trifling things at the weekend.
It may also be said that
rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two
classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is
and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of
these the former are the majority. They have their compensations.
The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as
their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite
for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But
Fortune’s favored children belong to the second class. Their life
is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long
enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come
are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vacation. Yet
to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of
atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may
well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most
need the means of banishing it at intervals from their
Mirror--What do I see,,
Mirror, Mirror---What do I
A loving person lives in a
loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone
you meet is your mirror.
Mirrors have a very particular
function. They reflect the image in front of them. Just as a
physical mirror serves as the vehicle to reflection, so do all of
the people in our lives.
When we see something beautiful
such as a flower garden, that garden serves as a reflection. In
order to see the beauty in front of us, we must be able to see the
beauty inside of ourselves. When we love someone, it’s a reflection
of loving ourselves. When we love someone, it’s a reflection of
loving ourselves. We have often heard things like “I love how I am
when I’m with that person.” That simply translates into “I’m able
to love me when I love that other person.” Oftentimes, when we meet
someone new, we feel as though we “click”. Sometimes it’s as if
we’ve known each other for a long time. That feeling can come from
sharing similarities.
Just as the “mirror” or other
person can be a positive reflection, it is more likely that we’ll
notice it when it has a negative connotation. For example, it’s
easy to remember times when we have met someone we’re not
particularly crazy about. We may have some criticism in our mind
about the person. This is especially true when we get to know
someone with whom we would rather spend less time.
Frequently, when we dislike
qualities in other people, ironically, it’s usually the mirror
that’s speaking to us.
I began questioning myself
further each time I encountered someone that I didn’t particularly
like. Each time, I asked myself, “What is it about that person that
I don’t like?” and then “Is there something similar in me?” in
every instance, I could see a piece of that quality in me, and
sometimes I had to really get very introspective. So what did that
It means that just as I can get
annoyed or disturbed when I notice that aspect in someone else, I
better reexamine my qualities and consider making some changes.
Even if I’m not willing to make a drastic change, at least I
consider how I might modify some of the things that I’m
At times we meet someone new
and feel distant, disconnected, or disgusted. Although we don’t
want to believe it, and it’s not easy or desirable to look further,
it can be a great learning lesson to figure out what part of the
person is being reflected in you. It’s simply just another way to
create more self-awareness.
On Motes and
On Motes and Beams
It is curious that our own
offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of
others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances
that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what
we cannot excuse in others. We turn our attention away from our own
defects, and when we are forced by untoward events to consider
them, find it easy to condone them. For all I know we are right to
they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in
ourselves together.
But when we come to judge
others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them,
but by an image that we have formed of ourselves fro which we have
left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us
in the eyes of the world. To take a trivial instance: how scornful
we are when we catch someo but who can say
that he has never told not one, but a hundred?
There is not much to choose
between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness,
of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have more
strength of character, or more opportunity, and so in one direction
or another give their instincts freer play, but potentially they
are the same. For my part, I do not think I am any better or any
worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action
in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world
would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these
reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to
oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to
look upon our fellows, even the most eminent and respectable, with
humor, and if they lead us to take ourselves not too
seriously.
An October
An October Sunrise
I was up the next morning be
fore the October sunrise, and away through the wild and the
woodland. The rising of the sun was noble in the cold and warmth of
it peeping down the spread of light, he raised his shoulder heavily
over the edge of grey mountain and wavering length of upland.
Beneath his gaze the dew-fogs dipped, and crept to crept to the
then stole away in line and column, holding skirts,
and clinging subtly at the sheltering corners where rock hung over
grassland, while the brave lines of the hills came forth, one
beyond other gliding.
The woods arose in folds, like
drapery of awakened mountains, stately with a depth of awe, and
memory of the tempests. Autumn’s mellow hand was upon them, as they
owned already, touched with gold and red and olive, and their joy
towards the sun was less to a bridegroom than a father.
Yet before the floating impress
of the woods could clear it self, suddenly the gladsome light
leaped over hill and valley, casting amber, blue, and purple, and a
t according to the scene they lit on, and the
yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven
hoof of darkness, all on the wings of hope advancing, and
proclaiming, “God is here!” then life and joy sprang reassured from
ev every flower, and bud and bird had a
flut and all the flashing of God’s gaze merged
into soft beneficence.
So, perhaps, shall break upon
us that eternal morning, when crag and chasm shall be no more,
neither hill and valley, nor gr but all things
shall arise, and shine in the light of the Father’s countenance,
because itself is risen.
To Be or Not to
To be or not to be
Outside the Bible, these six
words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They
were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the
most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not
only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be
or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly
and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A
philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which
is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He
answered it by saying: "I think, therefore am."
But the best definition of
existence ever saw did another philosopher who said: "To be is to
be in relations." If this true, then the more relations a living
thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to
increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we
are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from
our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are
interest-ed only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to
that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and
prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics,
international affairs--you are dead.
Contrariwise, it is true that
every time you acquire a new interest--even more, a new
accomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is
deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain
the real pessimist is the person who has lost
Bacon said that a man dies as
often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, new
friends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true
of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will
your live be also. If your thoughts are confined only to your
business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle
of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow
cir-conscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on
in China, then you are living in China~ if you’re interested in the
characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly
interesting people, if you listen intently to fine music, you are
away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of
passion and imagination.
To be or not to be--to live
intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves.
Let widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let
Gettysburg
Gettysburg Address
Fourscore and seven years ago,
our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal.
Now, we are engaged in a great
civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that
field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we
cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The
world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living,
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us---that from
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall n that
this nation, under God, shall have a
government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall
not perish from the earth.
First Inaugural
Address(Excerpts)
First Inaugural
We observe today not a victory
of party, but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end, as well
signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have
sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our
forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters
in your hands, my fellow
citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure
of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of
Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national
loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to
service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us
again, not as a call to bear arms, not as a
call to battle, tho but a call to bear the
burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out,
“ patient in tribulation, a struggle against the common enemies of man:
tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
Can we forge against these
enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and
West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will
you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the
world, only a few generations have been granted the role of
defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink
from this responsibility. I welcome it. I do not believe that any
of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to
this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the
glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans,
ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for
your country.
My fellow citizens of the
world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we
can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are
citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the
same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.
With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final
judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth,
God’s work must truly be our own.
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