What’s your life However mean your life is,meet it and live it;do not shun it
and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are
richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it
is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hours,even in a
poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as
brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in
the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have
as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the
most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive
without misgiving.
Most think that they are above being supported by the town, but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.Which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or friends,turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
无论你的生活如何卑微，要正视它，生活下去;不要躲避它，也不要恶语相加。你的生活不 像你本人那么糟糕。你最富有的时候，你的生活看上去倒是最贫穷的。吹毛求疵的人即便在 天堂也能挑出瑕疵。要热爱你的生活，尽管它可能是一贫如洗。即使身处贫民院，你也可能 享受一段愉快、兴奋、辉煌的时光。
西斜的落日映照在贫民院窗户上的余晖，与照射在富贵 人家的豪宅上一样光芒万丈;门前的积雪一样在早春消融。我只看到，一个气定神闲的人在 那里可以过着自得其乐的生活，抱着振奋乐观的思想，如同居住在皇宫里一般。依我之见， 城镇的贫民倒是往往过着最独立的生活。也许他们十分伟大，对任何事情皆可坦然受之。大 多数人认为他们不屑于接受城镇的施救; 但是实际上他们经常使用不诚实的手段来维持自己 的生计，这是更为不体面的。如同栽培花园中芬芳的花草一般在贫困中耕耘吧。犯不着千辛 万苦以求获得新东西，无论是衣服还是朋友。把旧的翻新再回归其中。万事万物没有变，是 我们在变。衣履可鬻，所思必存。
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