Wherever you are, and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike at this monment, and in all the moments of our existence. We are not at rest, we are on a journey. Our life is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal.

不论你处在什么地方，也不论你是什么人，不管是在此时此刻，还是在我们生命中的任何一个瞬间，有一件事对你我来说是恰巧相同的，我们不是在休息，我们是在一次旅途中，我们的生活是一种运动，一种趋势，是向一个看不见的目标稳定而不停地进步。

We are gaining something, or losing something, or losing something, everyday. Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely¹ the same, they are changing. For the mereadvance of time is a change. It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. The season makes the difference. The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish² in the man.

每一天，我们都会赢得某些东西，或者会失去某些东西。 甚至当我们的位置和我们的性格看起来跟以前完全相似时，它们事实上仍然在变化着。因为仅仅是时间的前进就是一种变化。对于一块荒地来说，在1月和7月是不同的，季节会制造差异。能力上的缺陷对于孩子来说是一种可爱的品质，但对于大人来说就是一种幼稚的表现。

Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. it sets us forward or backward. the action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline³ is to accept--the other alternative.

我们做的每一件事都是朝着一个或另一个方向前进一步。 甚至 没有做任何事情 这件事本身也是一种行为，它让我们前进或后退，一根刺针阴极的作用和阳极的作用都是一样真实的，拒绝也是一种接受--这些都是二中择一的选择。

Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? yes, you must be a little nearer to some port or other for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life, you have never been still for a single monment, the sea is too deep, you could not find an anchorage if you would, there can be no pause until you come into port.

你今天比昨天更接近你的港口了吗？是的--你必须接近某一个港口或者其他港口。自从你第一次被抛人生活之海，你的船连一分钟都没有静止过，海是如此之深，你也不可能找到一个抛锚的地方，于是你不可能停下来，知道你到达自己的港口。