[美国]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.
不论你身处何地，也不论你是什么人，此刻，以及我们生命中的每时每刻，有一件事对你我来说是相同的：我们不是在休憩，而是在旅途中。我们的生活是一种运动、一种趋势，是向一个看不见的目标稳步前进。每一天，我们都会赢得某些东西，或者失去某些东西。甚至当我们的位置和我们的性格看起来跟以前完全相同时，它们事实上也在变化着，因为仅仅时间的流逝就是一种变化。对于一块荒地来说，在一月和七月是不同的，季节会制造差异。孩子身上的局限可说是孩子气，但在大人身上就是幼稚。