To be courageous…requires no exceptional qualifications,no magic formula,no special combination of time,place and circumstance.It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all. Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage.In whatever arena of life one may meet the challengeof courage,whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience,the loss of his friends,his fortune,his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men,each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient,they can teach,they can offer hope,they can provide inspiration.But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
经典英语短篇美文 篇12To a large degree, the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are -- always!
Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much our lives worrying about a variety of things -- all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments,so much that we end up anxious,frustrated, depressed, and hopeless. On the flip side, we also postpone our gratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing ourselves future will be better than today. Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that"someday "never actually arrives. John Lennon once said,"Life is what~ s happening while we"re busy making other plans. "When we"re busy making "other plans", our children are busy growing up, the people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape, and our dreams are slipping away. In short, we miss out on life.
Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isn't. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future -- we won't have enough money, our children will get into trouble, we will get old and die, whatever.