英語勵誌文章：變老的那一天

　　英語勵誌文章：變老的那一天
　　
　　I dread to come to the end of the year,said a friend to me recently, it makes me realize I am growing old.
　　
　　William James, the great psychologist, said that most men are old fogies at twenty-fiveHe was right. Most men at twenty-five are satisfied with their jobs. They have accumulated the little stock of prejudices that they call their Principles, and closed their minds to all new ideas; they have ceased to grow.
　　
　　The minutea man ceases to grow-no matter what his years-that minute he begins to be old. On the other hand, the really great man never grows old.
　　
　　Goethe passed out at eighty-three, and finished his Faust only a few years earlier; Gladstone took up a new language when he was seventy. Laplace, the astronomer, was still at work when death caught up with him at seventy-eight. He died crying, What we know is nothing; what we do not know is immense.
　　
　　And there you have the real answer to the question, When is a man old?
　　
　　Laplace at seventy-eight died young. He was still unsatisfied, still sure that he had a lot to learn.
　　
　　As long as a man can keep himself in that attitude of mind, as long as he can look back on every year and say , I grew, he is still young.
　　
　　The minute he ceases to grow, the minute he says to himself, I know all that I need to know,--that day youth stops. He may be twenty-five or seventy-five, it makes no difference. On that day he begins to be old.
　　
　　我懼怕臨近歲末年尾，一位朋友最近對我說：它使我意識到我正在變老。
　　
　　偉大的心理學家威廉？詹姆斯就曾說過，大多數人25歲時就成了守舊落伍者。他的話是對的。大多數人25歲時就滿足於他們的工作。他們已經積累了一些他們稱之為原則的偏見，對所有新的思想關閉心靈之門；他們已經停止成長。
　　
　　一個人一旦停止成長--不管他年齡多大--他就開始衰老。反之，真正的偉人從來不會衰老。
　　
　　歌德享年83歲，逝世前幾年才完成《浮士德》；格萊斯頓70歲時又開始學習一門外國語；法國天文學家拉普拉斯78歲死時還在工作著。臨死前，他大聲喊道：我們所知的太少太少，我們所不知的太多太多。
　　
　　一個人何時變老？，從這類事例中對這個問題你已經有了真正的答案。
　　
　　拉普拉斯78歲逝世時依然年輕。他依舊不滿足，依舊感到許多東西要學。
　　
　　一個人，隻要他能夠保持這種心態，隻要他在回首過去的一年時能夠說我在成長，他就依然年輕。
　　
　　他一旦停止成長，他一旦對自己說我該懂的都懂了，這個時候他的青春也就完了。他可能在25歲時死去，也可能在75歲時死去，這都沒有區別。就在那一天，他開始變老。 （勵誌演講）