毅力

PERSEVERANCE

Napoleon declared, “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” Upon careful study we find perseverance depends upon three things—purpose, will, and enthusiasm. He who has a purpose is always concentrating his forces. By the will, the hope and the plan are prevented from evaporating into dreams. Enthusiasm keeps the interest up, and makes the obstacles seem small.

Life is in a sense a battle. The man who thinks to get on by mere smartness and by idling meets failure at last. Perseverance is the master impulse of the firmest souls, and holds the key to those treasure-houses of knowledge from which the world has drawn its wealth both of wisdom and of moral worth.

Great men never wait for opportunities; they make them. They seize upon what ever is at hand, work out their problem, and master the situation. The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given to him. This is success and there is no other.

One of the important lessons of life is to learn how to get victory out of defeat. It takes courage and stamina, when mortified by humiliating disaster, to seek in the ruins the elements of future conquest. Yet this measures the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. We cannot measure a man by his failures. We must know what use he makes of them. The man who has not fought his way upward and does not bear the scar of desperate conflict does not know the highest meaning of success.

【助讀詞匯】

◇persevere v. 堅持不懈，固執己見，不屈不撓

◇evaporate v. 使蒸發，蒸發

◇impulse n. 沖動，刺激，驅使

◇stuff n. 原料，材料；特質；素質

◇stamina n. 毅力，精力，持久力

◇mortify  v. 克服，使苦惱

◇desperate  adj. 孤注一擲的，鋌而走險的；絕望的

◇conflict n.（長期的）戰斗；戰爭

【參考譯文】

毅力

拿破侖說過：“勝利屬于最堅持不懈的人。”仔細研究后，我們發現毅力由三個因素決定：目標、意志和熱忱；擁有目標的人總是能集他全部的力量于一體；只要有意志，希望和計劃才不會落空變成幻想。熱忱讓興致永遠高漲，讓阻礙看起來微不足道。

在某種程度上，人生就是一場戰斗。僅憑小聰明和游手好閑就想出人頭地的人只能以失敗告終。毅力是意志堅定的人的最大的動力，它掌握著通向知識寶庫的鑰匙，在這寶庫里積聚了世間的財富——智慧與品德。

偉大的人絕不會等著機會上門，他們創造機會。他們利用身邊的一切，解決難題，掌控時局。在這世界上一個人能做的最偉大的事就是充分利用被賦予的東西，這就是成功，而不是其他。

人生最重要的一課就是要學會如何化失敗為成功。當蒙受了失敗的恥辱后，還在失敗的廢墟中找尋出促成未來成功的點點滴滴需要勇氣和耐力，這正是成功者與失敗者的差異所在。我們不能以失敗來評判某人，而是要知道他從中學到了什么。那種沒有往上拼搏，也沒因奮力一搏而掛彩的人，不懂成功最深層的含義。

【人生啟迪】

世界上有很多人，說智力他們不乏智力，說體力他們不乏體力，可是成功對他們而言，就是遙不可及。何不加一味“毅力”的良劑再試試？