The significant inscription found on an old key--"If i rest, i rust",---would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.

在一把古老的钥匙上刻有一意味深长的铭文——“如果我休息，我就生锈”，对饱受懒惰之苦的人来说，这句警世恒言真是妙极了，甚至最勤奋的人可能也会采纳它，以提醒自己，如果一个人允许其才能沉寂，就像废弃钥匙中的铁一样，很快，他们就会显现出生锈的迹象，最终，完不成需要他们完成的工作。

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

有些人有志于企及伟人的高度，他们就必须不断磨砺他们的才华，如此他们才可能打开知识的大门，这扇大门守卫着通往某一行业的进口，科学，艺术，文学，农业，人类所涉及的每一个领域。

Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, 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 Scotch 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 beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.

勤奋让打开成就大门的钥匙常用常新。如果Hugh Miller在采石场辛劳一整日，晚上休息放松，纵情愉悦，他就不会成为杰出的地理学家。闻名于世的数学家Edmund Stone，如果将他的休闲时间懒散虚度，他绝不会有数学辞典出版，也绝不会发现通往数学科学道路的钥匙。如果年少的苏格兰小伙子Ferguson在照看山坡上的羊群时，允许他自己忙碌的大脑停下来呼呼大睡，而不是通过一串珠子计算星星的位置，他就绝对不会成为举世闻名的天文学家。

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

勤奋可使人所向披靡，但这种勤奋不是心血来潮的，三天打鱼两天晒网式的，或者走火入魔顽固不化的；而是矢志不渝的，持之以恒的，日复一日，正道直行。自由的代价是警钟长鸣，而高贵持久的成功的代价是勤奋常在。