爱华网优美的文字于细微处传达出美感,并浸润着学生的心灵。通过英语美文,学生不仅能够感受语言之美,领悟语言之用,还能产生学习语言的兴趣。小编精心收集了英文励志美文，供大家欣赏学习!
英文励志美文：The thread of permanence
By William Zorach
It is strange how certain things make a great impression on us in childhood. I remember these verses by Longfellow:
"Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the graves is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul."
And again:
"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."
Of course, my generation was much more sentimental than today's youth but whether this was great poetry, it communicated in simple language a message, and made a lasting impression on a small boy.
When I was fifteen I had an imaginary guardian angel and when I went to the country to sketch on Sundays, I asked for guidance, praying that someday I would be a fine artist and paint nature as beautiful as she really is. What this little ceremony brought me was faith in the world and a belief in myself.
My faiths and beliefs have been badly strained. The Atomic Age has caught us in a web of fear. Our lives seem so impermanent and uncertain. There is such a waste of human potential, of things worth while in people which never find expression. I sometimes think it's a miracle that anything survives. Yet I believe that a thread of permanence runs through everything from the beginning of time, and the most valuable residue will survive.
I believe everybody has an urge to somehow spin his own life into a thread of permanence. It is the impulse of life. Some would call it the drive to immortality. Whatever it is, I think it is good because it gives purpose to existence. But purpose is not enough. Artists are supposed to be notoriously impractical, but for myself, I found I had to make decisions and plans if I were to try to create anything. I realized that I must approach life not only with a sensitivity, a perception of beauty, but with a feeling of humility and reverence.
My creed as an artist is to love life and liberty and the world of people. A man who works and loves his work is often a man dreaming, and the spirit of his dreams will find forms and symbols to express that dream. It is a wonderful feeling to create something. But today, I think there is a lack of power of communication. If people, not just artists, but all kinds of people, could only open their hearts and express their sorrow, their happiness, their fears and hopes, they would discover they had an identity with the main stream of life which they never saw before.
sometimes fear and cynicism so grip our minds that we lose heart. Then I try to remember how the great artists of the ages had the power of expressiveness. Theirs was the power to communicate, to exalt, to move the observer to joy or tears, to strike terror and awe in the hearts of men; not just to decorate or merely entertain.
If we can expand the boundaries of men's thoughts and beliefs, we will discover we all have creative possibilities - talents to make ourselves real identities as individuals, with a hold on the thread of immortality. If we can awaken ourselves to it, I am convinced we shall find that this is an alive and exciting age of adventure and experimentation from which a new beauty and a finer world will emerge.
英文励志美文：Spiritual Handholds on Life
by Dr. Fred Dow Fagg, JR
The view of the high Sierra Lake, nestled in the snow and rock slightly below the timber line,was beautiful from my vantage point some five hundred feet above its shimmering surface. Iwas anxious to rejoin my companions and try the fishing before are afternoon shadow -edging out from the surrounding array of peaks - entirely covered the lake. Just a shortdistance beyond the intervening shale, the trail zigzagged down to the valley. I disliked thethought of returning by the long, tedious trail I had ascended, and decided to chance the shale- even though part of it lay above a sheer drop-off of several hundred feet.
I started working my way over the loose rock with considerable caution and had covered abouthalf the distance when I became aware of a slight but persistent yielding of the shale undermy feet. Desperately, I looked for something that would offer support and lurched forward tograsp a light outcropping of solid rock just as the surface shale underfoot - loosened from itsfoundation by the warm noonday sun - cascaded downward and disappeared over the cliff.Several seconds passed before I heard it rattle into the lake.
Finally - after due consideration of the folly of short cuts - I managed to move from handholdto handhold and, at last, pulled myself to the trail by the aid of a dwarf juniper root. I haveforgotten how many trout I caught that afternoon, but I have not forgotten the value ofhandhold.
Handholds are needed also during the course of everyday life. They provide security when thethings we depend upon seem to be slipping out from under us. What are the spiritualhandholds I have found to be most value?
First, the teachings of the humble carpenter of Nazareth - for their insistence on thesupreme worth of the individual, for their stressing of the significance of sympatheticunderstanding, and for their unsurpassed evidence of dauntless faith.
Second, the conviction that, while every person should delight in making a courageous andself-reliant effort to live up to his capabilities, there are well-springs of power outside himselfthat can be tapped - if he will avail himself of them.
Third, that the nature of this world and of the people in it is determined more by our individualvision, understanding and conduct than by any material environmental factors, and that - inother words - nothing will produce the good world but the good man.
These are the principal spiritual handholds I have found to possess enduring value. Theyoffer both an exciting challenge and a calm assurance. They are the things I believe.
英文励志美文：Do you know your special talent?
Anne Heywood
What I am about to say may appear to be plugging my own business, but it’s what I know best—and I believe it deeply and sincerely. I believe that every human being has a talent—something that he can do better than anyone else. And I believe that the distinction betweenso-called “creative” talents and ordinary run-of-the-mill talents is an unnecessary and a man-made distinction. I have known exterminators and typists, waitresses and machinists whosecreative joy and self-fulfillment in their work could not be surpassed by Shakespeare’s orEinstein’s.
When I was in my teens, I read a quotation from Thomas Carlyle: “Blessed is he who hasfound his work. Let him ask no other blessedness.” At the time I thought that was a prettygrim remark, but I know now that Mr. Carlyle was right. When you find the thing that you cando better than anything else in the world, then all the wonderful byproducts fall in line: financialsecurity, happy personal relationships, peace of mind. I believe that until you find it, yoursearch for the byproducts will be in vain.
I also believe that in the process of searching, no experience is ever wasted, unless we allowourselves to run out of hope. In my own case, I had 34 different jobs before I found the rightone. Many of those jobs were heartbreakingly difficult. A few of them involved working withunscrupulous and horribly unpleasant people. Yet, in looking back, I can see that the mostunpleasant of those jobs, in many cases, gave me the biggest dividends—the most valuablepreparation for my proper life work.
And I have seen this happen in the destinies of hundreds of people. Periods which they thoughtwere hopeless, dark, and of no possible practical value have turned out to be the most pricelessexperience they ever had. I know a girl who is a famous package designer for Americanindustry. She was just given a promotion for which she competed with six well-qualifieddesigners. Her past, like all of ours, had its good times and its bad times. One of the worst ofthe bad times was a period when she lost her husband and was left with two small children tosupport. She took a clerking job in a grocery store because her apartment was on the floorabove it and between customers she could run up and keep an eye on the babies.
It was a two-year period of great despair, during which she was constantly on the verge ofsuicide. Yet the other day when she told me of her promotion to the top package design job,she exclaimed in astonishment, “And do you know that the single factor which swung it in myfavor was that I alone had over-the-counter experience with the customers who buy ourpackaged foods!”
When people talk about the sweet uses of adversity, I think they unduly stress a grim andkind of hopeless resignation, a conviction that, like unpleasant medicine, it’s somehow “goodfor us.” But I think it’s much more than that. I know that the unhappy periods of our livesoffer us concrete and useful plus-values, chief among them a heightened understanding andcompassion for others. We may not see it at the time, we may consider the experience entirelywasted, but, as Emerson says, “The years teach much which the days never know.”
你知道自己的特殊才能吗?
安妮.海伍德
我相信，所谓“创造性”才能与普通才能间的差距不过是一种人为的不必要的区别。除非我们允许自己放弃希望，否则任何经历都会在找寻的过程中发挥作用。
也许我要说的这些话看起来像是为自己的生意做宣传，然而这却是我最了解的东西……我对它的信仰真诚而深切。
我相信，每个人都是天才——相比别人而言，有些事他可能做得更好。我相信，所谓“创造性”才能与普通才能间的差距不过是一种人为的不必要的区别。我认识的一些杀虫员、打字员、女侍者和机械工，他们在工作中所创造的快乐与实现的自我价值，也许是莎士比亚或爱因斯坦也无法超越的。
我在年少时曾读过托马斯.卡莱尔的一句话：“一个人若是找到适合自己的工作，他便是幸福的，请让他别再祈求其他的幸福了。”当时，我觉得这句话过于残酷沉闷，而如今才知道卡莱尔先生是正确的。当你找到世上你能做得最好的事情时，稳定的收入、快乐的人际关系以及平静的心情等所有奇妙的“副产品”都会接踵而来。我相信，除非你找到它，否则你对一切“副产品”的追求也不过是徒劳而已。
我也相信，除非我们允许自己放弃希望，否则任何经历都会在找寻的过程中发挥作用。就我而言，在找到合适的工作前，我曾尝试过34种不同的工作。其中有很多工作的艰难程度简直令人难耐。在有些工作中，还会与一些不道德且令人讨厌的人相处。但是，回过头来才领悟到，在很多情况下，我从那些最令人头疼的工作中得到了最丰厚的报酬，它们成为我正确事业生涯的最有价值的准备。
在成百上千人的命运中，我也看到了这一点。他们拥有的最宝贵的经历，正是那些曾经被认为绝望、黑暗、不可能有实用价值的时期。我的一位朋友现在是美国著名工业包装设计师。最近，在与6位高水平设计师的竞争中，她脱颖而出，得到了提升。像我们所有人一样，她的过去也有巅峰与低谷。她失去了丈夫，还得抚养两个孩子，那是她最艰难痛苦的时期。她在自家楼下找了一份杂货店营业员的工作，这样一来，在没有顾客时她就可以抽空跑上楼看看孩子。那是她最绝望的两年，期间她几度想要自杀。但是，在她告诉我她被提升为首席包装设计师的那天，她惊叹道：“你知道吗?只有我与购买我们包装食品的顾客有过直接的接触，而这正是我获得这份工作的唯一原因。”
我认为，人们在谈论逆境的益处时，过度强调了一种冷酷与绝望的顺从，一种良药苦口般的信仰——逆境或多或少都有益于我们。然而，我觉得它的益处远不止此。我知道，生活中的不幸会带给我们具体而有用的附加值，其中最主要的就是对人们更深切的理解与同情。也许，我们当时并未意识到这一点，也许会认为这些经历毫无价值，但是，正如爱默生所言：“年复一年所积累的学问，是每日每天所无法了解的。”
