But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest - it is a tangled yarn.Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.

In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.

I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.

To regret one's errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

参考译文:
在风平浪静的大海上,每个人都是领航员.

但只有阳光没有阴影,只有快乐没有痛苦,根本不是真正的生活.就拿最幸福的人来说,他的生活也是一团缠结在一起的乱麻.痛苦与幸福交替出现,使得我们一会悲伤一会高兴. 甚至死亡本身都使得生命更加可爱.在人生清醒的时刻,在悲伤与失落的阴影之下,人们与真实的自我最为接近.

在生活和事业的种种事务之中,性格的作用比智力要大,头脑的作用远不如情感,天资也不如由判断力控制的自制,耐心与修养.

我一直认为,开始在内心更加严肃地生活的人,也会在外在上开始生活得更为朴素.在一个奢侈浪费的年代,我希望能向世人表明,人类真正的需要是如此之少.

真正的悔改,是为自己的错误感到后悔而力求不再重犯.比别人更加优秀并不高贵.真正的高贵是优于过去的自己.