[美文欣賞]

“We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite...”

I do not know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone.

We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.

I want the future to be better than the past. I don’t want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of our lives.

The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our business, if we only recognize them. We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.

[參考譯文]

“我們正在讀一本書的第一章第一行，這本書的頁數是無限的……”

我不知道是誰寫的，可我很喜歡這句話，它提醒我們未來是由自己創造的。我們可以把神秘、不可知的未來塑造成我們想象中的任何模樣，猶如雕刻家將未成形的石頭刻成雕像。

我們每個人都像是農夫。灑下良種將有豐收，播下劣種或生滿野草便將毀去收成。沒有耕耘則會一無所獲。

我希望未來比過去更加美好，希望未來不會沾染歷史的錯誤與過失。我們都應舉目向前，因我們的余生要用未來書寫。

往昔已逝，靜如止水;我們無法再作改變。而前方的未來正生機勃勃;我們所做的每一件事都將會影響著它。只要我們認識到這些，無論是在家中還是在工作上，每天我們的面前都會展現出新的天地。

在人類致力開拓的每一片領域上，我們正站在進步的起跑點。