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Advice to Youth
Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth – something instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young; for it is in one’s tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then I will say to you, my young friends – and I say it beseechingly, urgingly – always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition that you can by acting on your own better judgment.
Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in you didn’t mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined.
Go to bed early, get up early – this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the sun; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid reputation with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time- it is no trick at all.
By Mark Twain
马克 吐温(1835-1910),美国批判现实主义文学的奠基人,世界著名的短篇小说大师。他的睿智给超过一个世纪的读者留下深刻的印象。他的一生遍尝不幸与悲苦,但他却从未失去以幽默的心情面对生活。其作品文字辛辣讽刺,清新有力,审视角度自然而独特,被视为美国文学史上具划时代意义的现实主义著作。 |  |  |  |  |
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