双语有声阅读：如果休息,我就会生锈

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正如要想拥有自由就要时刻保持警惕一样，要想取得伟大的，持久的成功，就必须坚持不懈地努力。

 

If I Rest, I Rust¹

 

The significantinscriptionfound on an old key---“If I rest, I rust”---would be an excellent motto for those who areafflictedwith the slightest bit ofidleness. Even the most industrious² person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder³ that, if one allows hisfacultiesto rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.

 

Those who would attain⁴ the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their facultiespolishedby constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture---every department of human endeavor.

 

Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury⁵ of achievement. If Hugh Miller⁶, aftertoilingall day in aquarry, had devoted⁷ his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist⁸. The celebrated⁹ mathematician¹⁰, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch¹¹ lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads¹², he would never have become a famousastronomer.

 

Labor¹³ vanquishes¹⁴ all---not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful,unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternalvigilanceis the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.

 

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