【经典英文】The Meaning of Life 生命的意义 by J. B. Priestley

Life is never just being. It is a becoming,a relentless flowing on. Our parents live on through us, and we will live on through our children. The institutions we build endure, and we will endure through them. The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death. Our flesh may perish, our hands will wither, but that which they create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come.

Don’t spend and waste your lives accumulating objects that will only turn to dust and ashes. Pursue not so much the material as the ideal, for ideals alone invest life with meaning and are of enduring worth.

Add love to a house and you have a home. Add righteousness to a city and you have a community.Add truth to a pile of red brick and you have a school.Add religion to the humblest of edifices and you have a sanctuary. Add justice, to the far-flung round of human endeavor and you have civilization. Put them all together, exalt them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of humankind redeemed, forever free of need and strife and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope.

生命从来不只是生存。生命是无情的变化，是流动着的。父母的生命在我们身上得以延续，我们的生命在孩子的身上得以延续。我们建立的各种机构历久而存在，我们也因为它们而长存。我们创造的美，不因我们的死亡而褪色。我们的肉体可以消灭，双手可以枯干，但所创造的真善美将一代一代传下去。

不要把生命耗费在收集最终会化成尘土的物件上，要追求理想，少追求物质。因为只有理想赋予生活以意义，才有持久的价值。

爱人住宅就有了家；正义给予城市就有了社区；真理加到一堆石砖之中就有了学校；宗教进入最简陋的建筑就有了寺庙、神殿之类的圣地；正义施加在范围很广的人类活动上就有了文明；把这一切加在一起，把它们升华，消弭当今的种种弊端和不足，加上对人类获得救赎的信念，永远没有了贪求与争斗，就有了闪耀着希望之光的未来。