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 feld 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—theother 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 fnd an anchorage if you would；there can be no pause until you come into port.
不论你处在什么地方，也不论你是什么人，不管是在此时此刻，还是在我们生命中的任何一个瞬间，有一件事对你我来说是恰巧相同的：我们不是在休息，我们是在一次旅途中。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定而不停地前进。每一天，我们都会赢得某些东西，或者会失去某些东西。甚至当我们的位置和我们的性格看起来跟以前完全相似时，它们事实上仍然在变化着。因为仅仅时间的前进就是—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。能力上的缺陷对孩子来说是一种可爱的品质，但对大人来说就是一种幼稚的表现。