双语美文：年轻时一定要知道的15个道理

　　随着时间的流逝我们一直在获得新的知识，但是这些学问却往往在我们需要它的时候姗姗来迟。很多对我早期生活应该极其有用的事情我却现在才知道，它们本可以帮助我在那些年里避免很多错误跟伤害----大部分事情我也曾经强加于别人身上过。

　　我不相信生活会无故地变得富裕而有情趣，那只是浪漫的妄想。因为我一生都充满动荡和不安。也不同意错误是已经存在于某个地方好帮助我们学习的。那些错误都是我自己犯的- ---出于无知、害怕还有希望所有人都喜欢自己的愚蠢愿望----没有了它们我们的生活工作就会有更少的压力更多的快乐(当然还包括成功)。下面有几点是我很久以前就希望自己能够了解的。期待它们能帮助大家，即使是小部份人，能够避免重蹈我的覆辙。

　　Most people learn over time, but often learning comes too late to be fully useful. There are certainly many things that I know now that would have been extremely useful to me earlier in my life; things that could have saved me from many of the mistakes and hurts I suffered over the years—and most of those that I inflicted on others too。

　　I don’t buy the romantic notion that my life has been somehow richer or more interesting because of all the times I screwed up; nor that the mistakes were “put” there to help me learn. I made them myself—through ignorance, fear, and a dumb wish to have everyone like me—and life and work would have been less stressful and more enjoyable (and certainly more successful) without them. So here are some of the things I wish I had learned long ago. I hope they may help a few of you avoid the mistakes that I made back then。

　　1.拥有一颗平常心。

　　太多我曾经为其兴奋，为其焦虑，亦或是浪费了我时间以及精力的事情到最后却被证明是无关紧要的。它们只是幸福生活里极其微小的一部分。我多么希望早点知道这些，以便能把精力都投入到这些关乎幸福的事，而不是其他。

　　Most of it doesn’t matter.So much of what I got excited about, anxious about, or wasted my time and energy on, turned out not to matter. There are only a few things that truly count for a happy life. I wish I had known to concentrate on those and ignore the rest。

　　2.这个世界上痛苦与仇恨最大源泉是对过去的执迷。

　　看看那些恐怖组织和激进分子，他们总是抓住过去的一些事情不放，或把一小片土地的历史归属问题作为他们进行杀戮的理由，更或是为了修正几百年前的所谓的历史错误。

　　The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts.Look at all the terrorists and militant groups that hark back to some event long gone, or base their justification for killing on claims of some supposed historical right to a bit of land, or redress for a wrong done hundreds of years ago。

　　3.盲目追赶潮流是对精神和智力的扼杀

　　你可以成为一个廉价的时尚木偶，也可以成为独一无二的你，这些都在于自己的选择。信仰不是群众的鸦片，流行才是。

　　Following the latest fashion, in work or in life, is spiritual and intellectual suicide.You can be a cheap imitation of the ideal of the moment; or you can be a unique individual. The choice is yours. Religion isn’t the opiate of the masses, fashion is。