In a calm sea every man is a pilot.

    But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest—it is a tangled 1)yarn. 2)Bereavements and blessings, one following anther, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closest to their true selves in the 3)sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.

    In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, 4)regulated by judgment.

    I have always believe that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of 5)extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.

    To reGREt one’s errors to the point of not repeating them is true 6)repentance. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

    風平浪靜的大海上，每個人都是領航員。

    但只有晴天沒有陰霾，只有快樂沒有悲傷，那就全然不是人生。就拿最幸福的人來說吧——他們的命運就是一團糾纏不清的紗線。喪親之痛和神恩賜福此起彼伏，讓我們悲歡交替。甚至連死亡本身也使生命更加珍貴。人們在生命的莊嚴時刻，在哀傷和喪親的陰影之下，最接近真實的自我。

    在生活或事業中，性格比才智更能指導我們，心靈比頭腦更能引導我們，而由判斷而得的克制、耐心和教養比天分更能讓我們受益。

    我一向認為，內心開始生活得更為嚴謹的人，他外在的生活會開始變得更為簡樸。在物欲橫流的年代，但愿我能向世人表明：人類的真正需求少得多么可憐。

    反思自己的過錯以至于不重蹈覆轍才是真正的悔悟。高人一等并沒有什么值得夸耀的。真正的高貴是超越原來的你。

    1) yarn n. 紗，紗線

    2) bereavement n. （親人）喪亡

    3) sober adj. 嚴肅的，持重的

    4) regulate v. 管制，控制

    5) extravagance n. 奢侈，過度放縱

    6) repentance n. 后悔，悔改