一個人何時變老

"I dread to come to the end of the year,said a friend to me recently, "it makes me realize I am growing 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。”

William James, the great psychologist, said that most men are "old fogies at twenty-five",He 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.

偉大的心理學家威廉·詹姆斯就曾說過，大多數(shù)人“25歲時就成了守舊落伍者”。他的話是對的。大多數(shù)人25歲時就滿足于他們的工作。他們已經(jīng)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(jīng)停止成長。

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.

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。

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."

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。”

And there you have the real answer to the question, "When is a man old?"

“一個人何時變老？”，從這類事例中對這個問題你已經(jīng)有了真正的答案。

Laplace at seventy-eight died young. He was still unsatisfied, still sure that he had a lot to learn.

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。

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.

一個人，只要他能夠保持這種心態(tài)，只要他在回首過去的一年時能夠說“我在成長”，他就依然年輕。

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.

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(qū)別。就在那一天，他開始變老。

1.fogy    n. 守舊者,趕不上時代的人

　　例句：

　　Because of his fogy ideas, Old Tom brought the house about his ears. 

　　由于他的頑固觀念，湯姆惹得全家與他為敵。

2.astronomer  n. 天文學家

　　例句：

　　He is the best one of those astronomers. 

　　他是那些天文學家中最優(yōu)秀的一個。

3.immense      adj. 巨大的,廣大的

　　例句：

　　It's almost impossible to find him in the immense ocean. 

　　在無邊無際的海洋中要找到他幾乎是不可能的。