对于热爱生活的人,生活从来不吝啬。消极,封闭自我,生命会长满荒芜;积极,热爱生活,即便沙漠,也会成为生命的绿洲。
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so hard as you are. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
不论你的生活如何卑贱,你要面对它生活,不要躲避它,更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那么坏。你要爱你的生活,尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里,你也还有愉快激动光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上,像照在富户人家窗上一样光亮;在那门前,积雪同在早春融化。我只看到,一个从容的人,在哪里也像在皇宫中一样,生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧!不要找新的花样,无论是新的朋友或新的衣服来麻烦你自己。万物不变,是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉,但要保留你的思想。