爱华网阅读是英语教学必不可少的组成部分,它既是一项十分重要的语言技能,又是获取知识的重要手段。下面是小编带来的英语长篇励志文章，欢迎阅读!
英语长篇励志文章1Learning to Get Out of the Way
In every one of the higher religions there is a strain of infinite optimism on the one hand,and on the other,of a profound pessimism.In the depths of our being,they all teach,there is an inner high--but an inner Light which our egotism keeps,for most of the time,in a state of more of less eclipse.If,however,it so desires,the ego can get out of the way,so to speak,can dis--eclipse the Light and become identified wiht its divine source.Hence the unlimited optimmism of the traditional religions.There pessinism springs from the observed fact that,though all are called,few are chosen--for the sufficient reason that few choose to be chosen.
To me,this older conception of man's nature and destiny seems more realistic,more nearly in accord with the given facts,than any form of modern utopianism.
In the Lord's Prayer we are taught to ask for the blessing which consists in not being led into temptation.The reason is only too obvious.Whe temptations are very great or unduly prolonged,most persons succumb on them.To devise a perfect social order is probably beyond our powers,but I believe that it is perfectly possible for us to reduce the number of dangerous temptations to a level far below that which is tolerated at the present time.
A society so arranged that there shall be a minimum of dangerous temptations--this is the end towards which,as a citizen,I have to strive.In my efforts to that end,I can make use of a great variety of means.Do good ends justify the use of intrinsically bad means?On the level of theory,the point can be argued indefinitely.In practice,meanwhile,I find that the means employed invariably determine the nature of the end achieved.Indeed,as Mahatma Gandhi was never tired of insisting,the means are the end in its preliminary stages.Men have put forth enoumous efforts to make their world a better place to live in;but except in regard to gadgets,plumbing and hygiene,their sussess has been pathetically small."hell,"as the proverb has it,"is paved with good intentions."And so long as we go on trying to realize our ideals by bad or merely inappropriate means,our good intentions will come to the same bad ends.In this consists the tragedy and the irony of history.
Can I,as an individual,do anything to make future history a little less tragic and less ironic than history past and present?I believe I can.As a citizen,I can use all my intelligence and all my good will to develop political means that shall be of the same kind and quality as the ideal ends which I am trying to achieve.And as a person,as a psychophysical roganism,I can learn how to get out of the way,so that the divine source of my life and consciousness can come out of eclipse and shine through me.
在每种高级宗教的信仰中既包含无穷的乐观精神，又有一种深奥的悲观论。它们都告诫我们，在我们生命深处有一道内在的光芒——而这道光芒大多时候多多少少被我们自负的阴影所遮盖。然而，如果愿意，自负可以离开，或者说可以让这道光芒重新闪耀，并与创造它的神相融合，于是产生了传统宗教无尽的乐观主义，而其悲观论源于人们观察到的事实，即尽管人人皆受到召唤，却只有极少数人受到垂青——全因几乎无人愿受到垂青。
在我看来，这种关于人性及命运的更老的观念似乎比任何形式的现代乌托邦主义更现实，更符合既成事实。
主祷文教导我们要乞求上帝保佑，不被诱惑引入歧途，原因非常清楚，如果诱惑太大或延续太久，大多数人就会屈服。也许我们无力设计一种完美的社会秩序，但我相信我们完全可以将危险的诱惑减少到远远低于目前可忍受的程度。
构建一个能将危险的诱惑最小化的社会是我作为一个公民奋斗的目标。在为之奋斗的过程中，我可以采用各种方式，然而目标正确就可以采用实质上不正当的手段开脱吗?在理论层面上，这一点可以广泛讨论;在实践中，我同时发现，采用的手段决定目标的性质，无一例外。确实正如马哈特玛·甘地不厌其烦地坚持的那样，手段是目标的初始阶段。人们千方百计将这个世界建成更美好的家园，但除了小器械，管道安装和卫生之外，他们的成就少得可怜。“地狱”正如一句谚语所说“是由善意铺就的”。只要我们继续试图以卑劣或仅仅不当的手段实现理想，我们的善意将同样酿出恶果，构成历史的悲剧和讽刺。
作为个人，我能尽全力使未来不像过去和现在那么富有悲剧和讽刺意味吗?我相信，我能。作为公民，我能以我全部的智慧和全部的善意，运用与我为之奋斗的理想同种同质的政治手段。作为一个人，一种具备身心的有机体，我能学会如何摆脱自负，这样赋予我生命和意识的神的光芒就能驱散阴影，照亮我全身。
英语长篇励志文章2Growth That Starts From Thinking
It seems to me a very difficult thing to put into words the beliefs we hold and what they make you do in your life. I think I was fortunate because I grew up in a family where there was a very deep religious feeling. I don’t think it was spoken of a great deal. It was more or less taken for granted that everybody held certain beliefs and needed certain reinforcements of their own strength and that that came through your belief in God and your knowledge of prayer.
But as I grew older I questioned a great many of the things that I knew very well my grandmother who had brought me up had taken for granted. And I think I might have been a quite difficult person to live with if it hadn’t been for the fact that my husband once said it didn’t do you any harm to learn those things, so why not let your children learn them? When they grow up they’ll think things out for themselves.
And that gave me a feeling that perhaps that’s what we all must do—think out for ourselves what we could believe and how we could live by it. And so I came to the conclusion that you had to use this life to develop the very best that you could develop.
I don’t know whether I believe in a future life. I believe that all that you go through here must have some value, therefore there must be some reason. And there must be some “going on.” How exactly that happens I’ve never been able to decide. There is a future—that I’m sure of. But how, that I don’t know. And I came to feel that it didn’t really matter very much because whatever the future held you’d have to face it when you came to it, just as whatever life holds you have to face it exactly the same way. And the important thing was that you never let down doing the best that you were able to do—it might be poor because you might not have very much within you to give, or to help other people with, or to live your life with. But as long as you did the very best that you were able to do, then that was what you were put here to do and that was what you were accomplishing by being here.
And so I have tried to follow that out—and not to worry about the future or what was going to happen. I think I am pretty much of a fatalist. You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.
在思考中成长
我的信念是什么，它在我的人生中起到了什么作用------这些问题我觉得很难用言语解释清楚。我认为自己很幸运，因为我出生在一个笃信宗教的家庭。家里人对宗教谈论得并不多。每个人心中或多或少都有某些信仰，都希望通过某种方式获得力量，而这力量就来自信奉上帝并懂得如何祈祷。
我是在祖母身边长大的。随着年龄的增长，我对许多祖母视作理所当然的事产生了怀疑。我甚至拒绝让孩子们接触这些东西，似乎成了一个不近情理的人。直到有一次我丈夫劝我，这些东西你年少时也接触过，对你也并无坏处。既然如此，何不让孩子们也有了解它们的机会呢?他们长大以后会独立思考这些问题的。
他的话使我感到或许我们每个人都应该这样做------独立思考自己应该信仰什么以及如何在生活中坚守自己的的信仰。我认为人一生就应该尽全力做最好的自己------我想这就是我的信仰。
我不知道自己是否相信未来。我相信的是我们现在经历的一切一定有价值，因此必有某些道理，也必然预示着有些事情“将要发生”。但这些事情如何发生，我却不能决定。一定有未来------对此我深信不疑。但它会怎样降临。我不知道，然而着一点，我渐渐感到并不重要。因为无论未来如何，我们到时候总得面对，正如无论生活中发生了什么，我们都必须面对一样。真正重要的是要倾尽自己的全力。也许你能力有限、贡献不多，无法给予他人更多的帮助，或者无法活得那么精彩，但只要你能倾尽自己的全力，你就能完成来到人世间的使命，能体现人生的价值。
这就是我一直奉行的生活原则------不担心未来的事，也不为下一刻发生的事操心。我想我算是一个相信宿命的人吧。无论发生什么，我们都得勇敢面对，关键是面对的时候我们要勇敢，要倾尽自己的全力。
英语长篇励志文章3A New Look from Borrowed Time
By Ralph Richmond
Just ten years ago, I sat across the desk from a doctor with a stethoscope. “Yes,” he said, “there is a lesion in the left, upper lobe. You have a moderately advanced case…” I listened, stunned, as he continued, “You’ll have to give up work at once and go to bed. Later on, we’ll see.” He gave no assurances.
Feeling like a man who in mid-career has suddenly been placed under sentence of death with an indefinite reprieve, I left the doctor’s office, walked over to the park, and sat down on a bench, perhaps, as I then told myself, for the last time. I needed to think. In the next three days, I cleared up my affairs; then I went home, got into bed, and set my watch to tick off not the minutes, but the months. 2 ½ years and many dashed hopes later, I left my bed and began the long climb back. It was another year before I made it.
I speak of this experience because these years that past so slowly taught me what to value and what to believe. They said to me: Take time, before time takes you. I realize now that this world I’m living in is not my oyster to be opened but myopportunity to be grasped. Each day, to me, is a precious entity. The sun comes up and presents me with 24 brand new, wonderful hours—not to pass, but to fill.
I’ve learned to appreciate those little, all-important things I never thought I had the time to notice before: the play of light on running water, the music of the wind in my favorite pine tree. I seem now to see and hear and feel with some of the recovered freshness of childhood. How well, for instance, I recall the touch of thespringy earth under my feet the day I first stepped upon it after the years in bed. It was almost more than I could bear. It was like regaining one’s citizenship in a world one had nearly lost.
Frequently, I sit back and say to myself, Let me make note of this moment I’m living right now, because in it I’m well, happy, hard at work doing what I like best to do. It won’t always be like this, so while it is I’ll make the most of it—and afterwards, I remember—and be grateful. All this, I owe to that long time spent on the sidelines of life. Wiser people come to this awareness without having to acquire it the hard way. But I wasn’t wise enough. I’m wiser now, a little, and happier.
“Look thy last on all things lovely, every hour.” With these words, Walter de la Mare sums up for me my philosophy and my belief. God made this world—in spite of what man now and then tries to do to unmake it—a dwelling place of beauty and wonder, and He filled it with more goodness than most of us suspect. And so I say to myself, Should I not pretty often take time to absorb the beauty and the wonder, to contribute a least a little to the goodness? And should I not then, in my heart, give thanks? Truly, I do. This I believe.
