奧裏森·馬登/Orison Marden
"I do not know how it is with others when speaking on an important question," said Henry Clay, "but on such occasions I seem to be unconscious of the external world. Wholly engrossed by the subject before me, I lose all sense of personal identity, of time, or of surrounding objects."
"A bank never becomes very successful," says a noted financier, "until it gets a president who takes it to bed with him."
"Men are nothing," exclaimed Montaigne, "until they are excited." As the young lover has finer sense and more acute vision and sees in the object of his affections a hundred virtues and charms invisible to all other eyes, so a man permeated with enthusiasm has his power of perception heightened and his vision magnified until he sees beauty and charms others cannot discern which compensate for drudgery, privations, hardships, and even persecution.
Dickens says he was haunted, possessed, spirit—driven by the plots and characters in his stories which would not let him sleep or rest until he had committed them to paper. On one sketch he shut himself up for a month, and when he came out he looked haggard as a murderer. His characters haunted him day and night.
"Herr Capellmeister, I should like to compose something; how shall I begin?" asked a youth of twelve, who had played with great skill on the piano.
"Pooh, Pooh;" replied Mozart, "you must wait."
"But you began when you were younger than I am," said the boy.
"Yes, so I did," said the great composer, "but I never asked anything about it. When one has the spirit of a composer, he writes because he can't help it."
Gladstone says that what is really wanted is to light up the spirit that is within a boy. In some sense and in some degree, in some effectual degree, there is in every boy the material of good work in the world; in every boy, not only in those who are brilliant, not only in those who are quick, but in those who are stolid, and even in those who are dull, or who seem to be dull. If they have only the good will, the dullness will day by day clear away, under the influence of the good will.
"Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world," says Emerson, "is the triumph of some enthusiasm." It was enthusiasm that enabled Napoleon to make a campaign in two weeks that would have taken another a year to accomplish." These Frenchmen are not men, they fly," said the Austrians in consternation. In fifteen days Napoleon, in his first Italian campaign, had gained six victories, taken twenty-one standards, fifty-five pieces of cannon, had captured fifteen thousand prisoners, and had conquered Piedmont.
"There are important cases," says A.H.K. Boyd, "in which the difference between half a heart and a whole heart makes just the difference between signal defeat and a splendid victory."
“當談及一個重大的問題時，我不知道別人會做何反應，”美國政治家亨利·克萊說，“但是，在這樣的場合，我似乎會忘記外麵的世界，全身心地投入到討論中去，沒有個人身份、時間或是周圍其他事物的意識。”
一位知名的金融家說：“一家銀行，在沒有一位做夢都想著如何經營銀行的行長之前，是永遠都不會取得成功的。”
蒙田聲稱：“沒有熱情的人一無是處。”正如年輕的戀人擁有更敏感的感覺和更敏銳的視覺一樣，可以從愛人身上發現諸多他人所看不到的優點和魅力。因此，一個充滿熱情的人，他的感知能力會增強，視野也會變大，他能夠看到別人無法洞悉的美麗與優雅。工作生活中的勞累、困苦、艱辛，甚至煩擾都會消除。
狄更斯說，他曾變得很瘋狂——他構想的故事情節和人物使他寢食難安，這種情況直到他專心地將故事寫完才有所好轉。在擬定一個故事場景時，狄更斯曾把自己關在房裏一個月。等他終於走出房門的時候，他看上去憔悴得像落難的凶手。狄更斯筆下的人物日夜糾纏著他，令他無暇顧及其他事情。
一個琴技十分高超的12歲小男孩問道：“莫紮特先生，我想譜支曲子，我該如何開始呢？”
“年輕人，年輕人，”莫紮特回答道，“你必須要等待。”
“但是，您開始譜寫曲子的時候比我現在的年齡還小。”小男孩說道。
“是，你說得沒錯，”偉大的作曲家說，“但是我從來沒有向別人問過有關譜曲的問題。一個具有作曲熱情的人，譜寫曲子是因為創作的熱情而難以自控。”
英國政治家格萊斯頓說：“人類社會最需要的是，激發孩子心中潛藏的熱情。從某種意義上說，每個人都具有成就事業的潛質。不僅僅隻是那些聰慧、反應敏捷的孩子，每個孩子身上都有自己獨特的潛質，即使那些思維遲鈍，甚至呆滯的、看上去愚笨的孩子也是如此。如果他們擁有堅強的意誌，那麽在意誌的作用下，愚笨就會日益消減。”
愛默生說：“在人類曆史上，每一次偉大而有決定意義的舉動都是某種熱情創造的成果。”正是在熱情的鼓舞下，拿破侖用兩天的時間結束了本應一年才能結束的戰役。奧地利人驚慌失措地說道：“這些法國人不是人，他們會飛。”在他的第一次對意大利征戰中，拿破侖在15天內就贏得了六場戰役的勝利，繳獲對手21麵軍旗，55門大炮，捕獲戰俘15000人，占領了皮德蒙特高原。
正如博伊德所說的那樣：“做事三心二意與一心一意的區別就在於前者象征著失敗，而後者卻是巨大勝利的征兆。”
The unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates
混混噩噩的生活不值得過。
——蘇格拉底
engross[in?gr?us]v.占去；使全神貫注
I'd go into bookshops and engross myself in diet books and cookbooks.
我走進書店，聚精會神地讀關於飲食的書以及食譜。
invisible[in?viz?bl]adj.看不見的；無形的
The mends were almost invisible.
修補過的地方幾乎看不出來。
stolid[?st?lid]adj.遲鈍的；神經麻木的
He conceals his feelings behind a rather stolid manner.
他裝作無動於衷的樣子以掩蓋自己的感情。
consternation[?k?nst??nei??n]n.驚愕；恐怖；驚惶失措
To her consternation, he asked her to make a speech.
她感到驚慌的是，他要求她發言。
沒有熱情的人一無是處。
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一個充滿熱情的人，他的感知能力會增強，視野也會變大，他能夠看到別人無法洞悉的美麗與優雅。
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在人類曆史上，每一次偉大而有決定意義的舉動都是某種熱情創造的成果。
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...he sees beauty and charms others cannot discern which compensate for drudgery, privations, hardships, and even persecution.
compensate for：彌補；賠償
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If they have only the good will, the dullness will day by day clear away, under the influence of the good will.
day by day：一天天
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