“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is
no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive
to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who
spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at
least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be
with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
这是摘自Theodore Roosevelt在1910年4月于巴黎发表的“The Man in the Arena”演讲。
中文翻译：
那些对你指手画脚并妄加评论的人；那些在一旁指指点点说哪里可以做得更好的话，这些都并不重要。真正重要的是，那些站在竞技场奋斗的人，他们脸上沾着尘土、汗水甚至血迹；荣誉将属于他们。属于那些勇敢拼搏的人；属于那些犯错，经历过失败的人，因为没有任何努力可以不经过失败的考验，但即使面临失败，他们也仍然拼尽全力；属于那些有所热爱之人，明白自己为何而活的人；那些将自己的生命奉献给有价值之事业的人；即使失败，至少也曾经为此而努力过，而这本身就是另一种凯旋而归。至于那些冷漠而胆小的灵魂，连试都没有试，更遑论于成功失败。
在每一天的生活中，我们很少会想到“荣誉”二字，要是看到国家运动员拿到金牌看着五星红旗冉冉升起时才配得称之为荣誉。“荣誉”的中文解释是指所获得的成就和地位得到广泛的传播，而对应的英文“honour”也有对应的这种有形的解释，但是我更喜欢的是是这个单词另外一种解释“the quality of being honorable”，一种被正直值得被尊敬的品质。这一种品质在很多人身上都存在，只是它不会被大肆宣扬出来。孔子说的“人之生也直，罔之生也幸而免”，也大概是这个意思。