英语人生必读的经典优秀散文

我们在生活中有时候有时间就可以看看英语的散文来学习，所以小编今天就给大家分享一下英语散文，希望可以帮助到大家

　　with tolerance宽容之心

It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than that of others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what we cannot excuse in others. We turn our attention away from our own defects, and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them, find it easy to condone them. For all I know we are right to do this; they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in ourselves together.

让人奇怪的是，和别人的过错比起来，我们自身的过错往往不是那样的可恶。我想，其原因应该是我们知晓一切导致自己犯错的情况，因此能够设法谅解自己的错误，而别人的错误却不能谅解。我们对自己的缺点不甚关注，即便是深陷困境而不得不正视它们的时候，我们也会很容易就宽恕自己。据我所知，我们这样做是正确的。缺点是我们自身的一部分，我们必须接纳自己的好和坏。

But when we come to judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge hem, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world. To take a trivial stance: how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie; but who can say that he has ever told not one, but a hundred?

但是当我们评判别人的时候，情况就不同了。我们不是通过真实的自我来评判别人，而是用一种自我形象来评判，这种自我形象完全摒弃了在任何世人眼中会伤害到自己的虚荣或者体面的东西。举一个小例子来说：当觉察到别人说谎时，我们是多么地蔑视他啊!但是，谁能够说自从未说过谎?可能还不止一百次呢。

There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have more strength of character, or more opportunity, and so in one direction or another give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same. For my part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows, even the most eminent and respectable, with humor, and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.

人和人之间没什么大的差别。他们皆是伟大与渺小，善良与邪恶，高尚与低俗的混合体。有的人性格比较坚毅，机会也比较多，因而这个或那个方面，能够更自由地发挥自己的禀赋，但是人类的潜能却都是相同的。至于我自己，我认为自己并不比大多数人更好或者更差，但是我知道，假如我记下我生命中每一次举动和每一个掠过我脑海的想法的话，世界就会将我视为一个邪恶的怪物。每个人都会有这样的怪念头，这样的认识应当能够启发我们宽容自己，也宽容他人。同时，假如因此我们得以用幽默的态度看待他人，即使是天下最优秀最令人尊敬的人，而且假如我们也因此不把自己看得过于重要，那是很有裨益的。

　　Life inspiring生活的启示

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her, She did not know she was going to make it and want to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

有一个女孩向她父亲抱怨她的生活，她觉得凡事都很艰难，不知该怎样挺过去，想放弃。她厌倦了不断的抗争和奋斗，似乎一个问题刚刚解决，另一个问题马上呈现。

Her father, a cook, took her to the kitchen, He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and in the last he placed ground coffee beans. He led them sit and boil, without saying a word.

她的父亲是个厨师，他把她带到了厨房。他在三个壶里分别装满了水，然后放到高温的火上烧。很快，壶里的水被煮开了。他往第一个壶里放了些胡萝卜，往第二个壶里放了几个鸡蛋，在最后一个壶里放了些磨碎的咖啡豆，然后，一句话也没说，他由着水把它们煮沸。

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners, He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a mug. Turning to her he asked," Darling, what do you see?"

女儿咂巴着牙齿发出声响，不耐烦地等着，对父亲的行为感到很纳闷。大约二十分钟后，父亲关掉了火炉，把胡萝卜捞出来，放到一个碗里。又把鸡蛋拣出来放进另一个碗里，接着把咖啡用勺子舀出来倒进一个杯子里，然后转过头来，对她说，“亲爱的，你看到的是什么?”

Carrots, eggs, and coffee. she replied.

“胡萝卜、鸡蛋和咖啡。”她答道。

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots, she did and noted that they were soft . Then he asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma.

父亲把她带近了这些东西，要她去摸胡萝卜，她摸了之后，注意到，它们变柔软了。然后，他又要她去拿一个鸡蛋并把它敲破，在把壳剥掉之后，她观察了这个煮熟的鸡蛋。最后，父亲要她饮一口咖啡。尝着芳香四溢的咖啡，她微笑起来。

What does it mean, Father? she humbly asked.

“这是什么意思，父亲?”她谦逊地问道。

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had being fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water. its inside became hardened ,The ground coffee beans were unique ,however ,After they were in the boiling water ,they had changed the water .

父亲解释说，这三样东西面临着同样的逆境——煮沸的水。但它们的反应却各不相同。胡萝卜本是硬的，坚固而且强度大，但受到煮沸的水的影响后，它变得柔软而脆弱。鸡蛋本来易碎，薄薄的外壳保护着内部的液体。但是在经历过煮沸的水以后，它的内部却变得坚硬。不过，最独特的却是磨碎的咖啡豆，当它们被放入煮沸的水之后，它们却改变了水。

Which are you? he asked his daughter.

“哪一个是你呢?”他问女儿。

When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

当逆境找上你时，你该如何应对呢? 你是胡萝卜、鸡蛋，还是咖啡豆?

　　Industry significance勤劳的意义

The significant inscription found on an old key "If I rest, I rust" would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest taint of idleness. Even the most industrious might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.

在一把旧钥匙上发现了一则意义深远的铭文——如果我休息，我就会生锈。对于那些懒散而烦恼的人来说，这将是至理名言。甚至最为勤勉的人也以此作为警示：如果一个人有才能而不用，就像废弃钥匙上的铁一样，这些才能就会很快生锈，并最终无法完成安排给自己的工作。

Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture --- every department of human endeavor.

有些人想取得伟人所获得并保持的成就，他们就必须不断运用自身才能，以便开启知识的大门，即那些通往人类努力探求的各个领域的大门，这些领域包括各种职业：科学，艺术，文学，农业等。

Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness. Had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer

勤奋使开启成功宝库的钥匙保持光亮。如果休米勒在采石场劳作一天后，晚上的时光用来休息消遣的话，他就不会成为名垂青史的地质学家。著名数学家爱德蒙斯通如果闲暇时无所事事，就不会出版数学词典，也不会发现开启数学之门的钥匙。如果苏格兰青年弗格森在山坡上放羊时，让他那思维活跃的大脑处于休息状态，而不是借助一串珠子计算星星的位置，他就不会成为著名的天文学家。

Labor vanquishes all --- not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.

劳动征服一切。这里所指的劳动不是断断续续的，间歇性的或方向偏差的劳动，而是坚定的，不懈的，方向正确的每日劳动。正如要想拥有自由就要时刻保持警惕一样，要想取得伟大的，持久的成功，就必须坚持不懈地努力。