从励志书籍到“世界无抱怨运动”,积极思考的力量从来没有向今天那么频繁地被鼓吹成通向快乐、健康、富有和智慧的康庄大道。下面是小编带来的优秀英语励志美文，欢迎阅读!

优秀英语励志美文精选

有一说一

by Ralph Pinelli

拉尔夫·皮内利

An umpire has to make instant decision. I've learned to call things as I see them. This helps me make a quick reply to such an important and personal question as my belief. My philosophy of life is simple, with a vital driving force.

裁判员必须要迅速做出决定。我已经学会了有一说一。因此，我也能很快地回答有关我的信仰这样重大的问题。我的生活哲学十分简单，但却具有巨大的驱动力。

I believe in my God, my family, my country, and baseball.

我信仰我的上帝，我的家庭，我的祖国以及棒球。

Including baseball may seem out of place in this statement, but I firmly believe that baseball, more than being just a national pastime, is beneficially bound up with American life - certainly with my own. It helped develop me physically as a boy. It taught me teamwork and ability to co-operate with others. Another thing, it taught me to try to play according to the rules of the games. This has helped me throughout life.

把棒球包括在内似乎不太妥当，但我坚信棒球并不只是一项全球性的娱乐活动，它和美国人的生活密切相关并有益于美国人的生活——当然对我的生活来说也是如此。在我还是个孩子的时候，它使我的身体茁壮成长，教我懂得团队精神，能够与他人合作。此外，它还教我懂得遵守比赛规则。这使我终生受益。

My parents came to this country from Italy as poor immigrants. I grew up at a time when even a high-school education was out of reach. My formal education never went beyond the elementary grades. But the lessons I learned at home, at church and on the playground have carried me through.

我的父母从意大利移民到美国时非常贫穷。在我成长时，他们甚至无力供我上学。我所接受的正规教育仅限于小学，但我在家里、在教堂里以及在运动场上所学到的知识使我能顺利地走到今天。

I believe firmly in higher education. My son was assigned to a baseball contract when he was still in high school but I insisted on a clause permitting him a full four-year college course before starting professional ball.

我坚信高等教育的重要性。当我的儿子还在读中学时，他就有和棒球队签约的机会，但我坚持要在合同上补充一个条款，保证让他先修完大学四年课程后才开始职业球员的生涯。

I believe that even more important than a college education, though, is the good solid practical and religious training in the home and at church. My mother taught me a proper scale of values and trained me to live up to them. I still remember the sand-lot game I had to leave before the final inning so I could get on my Sunday suit and be at church in time for Confirmation.

然而，我相信，还有比大学教育更为重要的事，那就是在家里和教堂里接受良好持续的宗教熏陶和务实的训练。我的母亲教我懂得正确的价值观，并训练我遵循它们而生活。我仍然还记得我在进行业余棒球比赛时不得不在最后一局之前离开，为了能穿上我最好的衣服，按时到教堂参加坚信礼仪式。

Experience has proved my belief in the importance of the family. This is where good, useful citizens come from. My wife and I have enjoyed the companionship of some thirty-five years of married life, and we have had the happiness of seeing our two sons grew into manhood and start their own families. We never had the pleasure of having a daughter, but now we happily share three granddaughters and five grandsons. Our happiness with them is a great consolation and comfort against the older years when many a couple grow lonely.

人生的经历证实了我的信仰，即家庭非常重要。家庭是培养善良有用公民的摇篮。我和我的妻子相依相伴，共同度过了大约三十五年的婚姻生活，幸福地看到我们的两个儿子长大成人并建立了他们自己的家庭。我们从未享受过有女儿的乐趣，但现在我们却有了三个孙女和五个孙子，感到非常幸福。在许多老年夫妇孤独地生活时，有儿女们相伴的幸福对我们的晚年生活无疑是一种莫大的慰藉。

I have found strength and consolation in my church, and I have found peace and help in humble daily prayer when I praise God for His goodness and ask Him to "forgive me my trespasses as I forgive others," and beg His blessings for myself and my family and friends.

我在教会里找到了力量和安慰，在每日恭敬的祈祷中我获得了心灵的平静和帮助。我赞美上帝的仁慈，请求他“因为我们饶恕人的过错，也饶恕我的过错”，祈求他赐福给我、我的家人和朋友。

So these are the things I believe in:

这些就是我所信仰的：

My God, who has given me a personal destiny and who deserves all praise and service;

上帝，他赐予我命运并值得我的一切赞美和服务;

My family, who have given me happiness and strength;

家庭，它给我幸福和力量;

My country, which has given me every opportunity to live my life according to my conscience;

祖国，它为我提供一切机会按照自己的良心生活;

And baseball, which has given me healthy recreation and solid training for life.

棒球，它是一种娱乐和训练，使我健康，使我懂得生活。

This is my theology and philosophy of life.

这就是我的宗教信仰和人生哲学。

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如何让空虚的生活充实起来

by Albert J Nesbitt

艾伯特.内斯比特

One day about fifteen years ago I suddenly came face to face with myself and realized there was something quite empty about my life.

大约15年前的一天，我在面对自己时，突然觉得自己的生活很空虚。

My friends and associates perhaps didn’t see it. By the generally accepted standards, I was “successful,” I was head of a prosperous manufacturing concern and led what is usually referred to as an “active” life, both socially and in business.

也许这是朋友和同事所无法理解的。按照公认的标准来看，我是一位“成功者”。我领导着一个生意不错的制造公司，是社交界及商界中的“活跃分子”。然而，对我而言，这些并没有太大的意义。我始终都在圈内转来转去。

But it didn’t seem to me to be adding up to anything. I was going around in circles. I worked hard, played hard, and pretty soon I discovered I was hitting the highballs harder than I needed. I wasn’t a candidate for Alcoholics Anonymous, but to be honest with myself I had to admit I was drinking more than was good for me. It may have been out of sheer boredom.

我努力工作，尽情享乐，但很快就发现自己喝酒有些过多。虽然我并不准备加入嗜酒者互诫协会，但说真的，我不得不承认自己喝了太多的酒。也许，这是因为我的生活实在太无聊了。

I began to wonder what to do. It occurred to me that I might have gotten myself too tightly wrapped up in my job, to the sacrifice of the basic but non-materialistic values of life. It struck me abruptly that I was being quite selfish, that my major interest in people was in what they meant to me, what they represented as business contacts or employees, not what I might mean to them.

于是，我开始想着去做点什么。突然，我想到或许是由于自己将过多的精力投入工作，却付出了失去最基本精神生活价值的代价。我顿时明白：自己一向都很自私，我只对别人对我意味着什么，作为我的生意伙伴或员工会为我带来什么价值感兴趣，而不在意我对他们而言意义何在。

I remembered that as my mother sent me to Sunday school as a boy, and encouraged me to sing in the church choir, she used to tell me that the value of what she called a good Christian background was in having something to tie to. I put in a little thought recalling the Golden Rule and some of the other first principles of Christianity. I began to get interested in YMCA work.

记得孩提时，母亲常告诉我，一位虔诚信徒的人生价值在于他拥有精神的寄托。当时，她还送我去主日学校学习，并鼓励我参加教堂唱诗班。我努力在脑海中回想着《圣经》中的金箴和基督教义中一些最重要的信条。于是，我开始对基督教青年会的工作感兴趣了。

It happened that just at this time we were having some bitter fights with the union at our plant. Then one day it occurred to me: What really is their point of view, and why? I began to see a basis for their suspicions, their often chip-on-shoulder point of view, and I determined to do something about it.

凑巧的是，那时我们与工厂工会之间发生了一些尖锐的摩擦。后来的一天，我突然想到：他们真正的观点是什么?为什么会这样?我开始明白他们为何会对我们产生怀疑，并常持敌对态度，于是我决定采取相应的行动。

We endeavored to apply—literally apply—Christian principles to our dealing with employees, to practice, for example, something of the Golden Rule.

在处理与员工间的问题时，我们试图将基督教的信条应用甚至照搬到其中，比如说，将金箴中的某些忠告付诸行动。

The men’s response, once they were convinced we were sincere, was remarkable. The effort has paid for its pains, and I don’t mean in dollars. I mean in dividends of human dignity, of a man’s pride in his job and in the company, knowing that he is no longer just a cog but a live personal part of it and that it doesn’t matter whether he belongs to a certain church or whether the pigmentation of his skin is light or dark.

当人们相信我们的诚意，自然就会作出良好的回应。这种做法痛苦但却有所回报。我所说的回报并非金钱，而是人的尊严，会使一个人为他的工作与公司而骄傲。他明白，自己不再是一个微不足道的小齿轮，而是公司中生动鲜活的一分子，公司不会在乎他属于哪个教会，或是肤色深浅。

But I can speak with most authority on how this change of attitude affected me and my personal outlook on life. Perhaps, again, many of my friends did not notice the difference.

然而，我可以肯定地说，我和我的人生观正是因这种态度而发生了转变。也许，对于我的变化，多数朋友并没有发现。

But I noticed it. That feeling of emptiness, into which I was pouring cocktails out of boredom, was filling up instead with a purpose: to live a full life with an awareness and appreciation of other people. I do not pretend for a second that I have suddenly become a paragon. My faults are still legion and I know them.

但是，我自己注意到了。曾经用酗酒来排遣的空虚感，如今已不复存在，取而代之的是明确的目标：充实地生活，关注并尊重他人的存在。我并不假装自己已经成了一个典范，我明白自己还有许多缺点。

But it seems to me better to have a little religion and practice it than think piously and do nothing about it. I feel better adjusted, more mature than I ever have in my life before. I have no fear. I say this not boastfully but in all humility. The actual application of Christian principles has changed my life.

但是，在我看来，与其什么都不做地虔诚思考，不如拥有一点宗教信仰并将其付诸实践。我感觉，相比以前，自己得到了更好的调整，也更为成熟了。我无所畏惧。我之所以这么说，并非吹嘘，而是满怀谦卑。我的生活也因将基督教信条付诸实践而发生了改变。

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One Girl Changed My Life一位女孩改变了我的生活

My childhood and adolescence were a joyous outpouring of energy, a ceaseless quest for expression, skill, and experience.

我在童年和少年时代激情四溢，无时无刻不追求展现自我、磨砺才艺和体味生活。

School was only a background to the supreme delight of lessons in music, dance, and dramatics, and the thrill of sojourns in the country, theaters, concerts. And books, big Braille books that came with me on streetcars, to the table, and to bed.

学校里的音乐、舞蹈和戏剧课让我欢欣不已，而剧院和音乐会更让我身心为之震颤，乡间流连的时光也同样美妙，还有我的书，那些厚重的盲文书籍无论在我乘车、用餐还是睡觉时都与我形影不离。

Then one night at a high school dance, a remark, not intended for my ears, stabbed my youthful bliss: “That girl, what a pity she is blind.”

然而，一天晚上，在高中的一次舞会上，一句我无意中听到的话霎那间将我年少的幸福击碎——“那女孩是个瞎子，真可惜!”

Blind! That ugly word that implied everything dark, blank, rigid, and helpless. Quickly I turned and called out, Please don’t feel sorry for me, I’m having lots of fun. But the fun was not to last.

瞎子——这个刺耳的字眼隐含着一个阴暗、漆黑、僵硬和无助的世界。我立刻转过身，大声喊道：“请不要为我叹惜，我很快乐!”——但我的快乐自此不复存在。

With the advent of college, I was brought to grips with the problem of earning a living. Part-time teaching of piano and harmony and, upon graduation, occasional concerts and lectures, proved only partial sources of livelihood. In terms of time and effort involved, the financial remuneration was disheartening.

升入大学之后，我开始为生计而奔波。课余时间我教授钢琴及和声，临近毕业时还偶尔参加几次演奏会，做了几次讲座，可要维持生计光靠这些还是不够，与投入的时间和精力相比，它们在经济上的回报让人沮丧。

This induced within me searing self-doubt and dark moods of despondency. Adding to my dismal sense of inadequacy was the repeated experience of seeing my sisters and friends go off to exciting dates.

这让我失去了自信和勇气，内心郁闷苦恼。眼看我的姐妹和伙伴们一次次兴高采烈地与人约会，我更觉消沉空虚。

How grateful I was for my piano, where—through Chopin, Brahms, and Beethoven—I could mingle my longing and seething energy with theirs. And where I could dissolve my frustration in the beauty and grandeur of their conceptions.

所幸的是，还有钢琴陪我。我沸腾的渴望和激情在肖邦、贝多芬、勃拉姆斯那里得到了共鸣。我的挫败感在他们美妙壮丽的音乐构想中消散。

Then one day, I met a girl, a wonderful girl, an army nurse, whose faith and stability were to change my whole life. As our acquaintance ripened into friendship, she discerned, behind a shell of gaiety, my recurring plateaus of depression.

直到有一天，我遇见一位女孩，一位出色的女孩，这名随军护士的信念和执著将改变我的一生。我们日益熟稔，成为好友，她也慢慢察觉出我的快乐的外表之下内心却时常愁云密布。

She said, “Stop knocking on closed doors. Keep up your beautiful music. I know your opportunity will come. You’re trying too hard. Why don’t you relax, and have you ever tried praying?”

她对我说，“门已紧锁，敲有何用?坚持你的音乐梦想，我相信机会终将来临。你太辛苦了，何不放松一下——试试祷告如何?”

The idea was strange to me. It sounded too simple. Somehow, I had always operated on the premise that, if you wanted something in this world, you had to go out and get it for yourself.

祷告?我从未想到过，听起来太天真了。一直以来，我的行事准则都是，无论想得到什么都必须靠自己去努力争取。

Yet, sincerity and hard work had yielded only meager returns, and I was willing to try anything. Experimentally, self-consciously, I cultivated the daily practice of prayer. I said: God, show me the purpose for which You sent me to this world. Help me to be of use to myself and to humanity.

不过既然从前的热诚和辛劳回报甚微，我什么都愿意尝试一番。虽然有些不自在，我尝试着每天都祷告——“上帝啊，你将我送到世上，请告诉我你赐予我的使命。帮帮我，让我于人于己都有用处。”

In the years to follow, the answers began to arrive, clear and satisfying beyond my most optimistic anticipation. One of the answers was Enchanted Hills, where my nurse friend and I have the privilege of seeing blind children come alive in God’s out-of-doors. Others are the never-ending sources of pleasure and comfort I have found in friendship, in great music, and, most important of all, in my growing belief that as I attune my life to divine revelation, I draw closer to God and, through Him, to immortality.

在接下来的几年里，我得到了明确而满意的回答，超出了我最乐观的期望值。其中一个回答就是魔山盲人休闲营区。在那里，我和我的护士朋友每年都有幸看到失明的孩子们在大自然的怀抱中是多么生气勃勃。除此之外，朋友们真挚的友谊以及美妙的音乐都给我带来无穷无尽的欢乐和慰藉。最重要的是，我越来越意识到，在我日复一日的祷告中，当我聆听上帝的启示之时，我正日益与他靠近，并通过他接近永恒。