The Benefits of Work
佚名/Anonymous
年轻人,记住,你必须工作。
不论你是使用锄头还是钢笔,不论你是推车还是统计账簿,也不论你是挖沟渠还是编辑报纸,又或是敲响拍卖槌还是写些有趣的东西,你必须工作。环顾四周,你会发现最有可能安度晚年无须工作的人,现在工作最努力。别害怕工作过度会谋害你的性命。不到三十岁的美好年华,承受能力远不止此。有人丧生,只是因为他们晚上六点结束工作后,不是径直回家,而是流浪到凌晨两点。年轻人,正是那段时间毁了他们。工作让你食欲大增,使你安然入睡,让你心满意足地享受假日。
不工作的年轻人有很多,但世界不会以他们为荣。他们的名字无人知晓,甚至被人谈及时只会称其为“某人的儿子”。没有人喜欢他们,庞大、繁忙的世界根本不知道他们的存在。所以,想清楚自己想成为怎样的人,想要去做什么。然后,脱下外套,投身于繁忙的世界。你越忙碌,受到的伤害就越少,睡眠就越香甜,假日就越快乐、越幸福,你也会对这个世界更满意。
Remember, my son, you have to work.
Whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheel-barrow or a set of books, digging ditches or editing a paper, ringing an auction bell or writing funny things, you must work. If you look around you will see the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who work the hardest. Don't be afraid of killing yourself with overwork. It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny side of thirty. They die sometimes, but it is because they quit work at six in the evening, and do not go home until two in the morning. It's the interval that kills, my son. The work gives you an appetite for your meals; it lends solidity to your slumbers; it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday.