[美國]亨利·凡·戴克/Henry Van Dyke
Wherever you are, and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence. We are not at rest;we are on a journey. Our life is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal. We are gaining something, or losing something, everyday. Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing. For the mere advance of time is a change. It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. The season makes the difference. The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man.
Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. It sets us forward or backward. The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline is to accept-the other alternative.
Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday?Yes,-you must be a little nearer to some port or other;for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life, you have never been still for a single moment;the sea is too deep, you could not find an anchorage if you would;there can be no pause until you come into port.
不論你身處何地，也不論你是什麽人，此刻，以及我們生命中的每時每刻，有一件事對你我來說是相同的：我們不是在休憩，而是在旅途中。我們的生活是一種運動、一種趨勢，是向一個看不見的目標穩步前進。每一天，我們都會贏得某些東西，或者失去某些東西。甚至當我們的位置和我們的性格看起來跟以前完全相同時，它們事實上也在變化著，因為僅僅時間的流逝就是一種變化。對於一塊荒地來說，在一月和七月是不同的，季節會製造差異。孩子身上的局限可說是孩子氣，但在大人身上就是幼稚。