·Poverty entails fear，and stress，and sometimes depression；it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts，that is indeed something on which to pride yourself，but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.
贫穷并不是一种高贵化的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时伴随绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，到确实可以引以自豪，但贫穷本身只有对傻瓜而言才是感到浪漫的。
·What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty，but failure.我在你们这个年龄，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。
·Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates，and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
才华和智慧，从来不会让人规避掉命运带给人们的折磨；而且我也不会假设大家坐在这里享受着这优越感。
·Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was，and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.Had I really succeeded at anything else，I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.I was set free.
很简单因为失败意味着要剥离掉那些不必要的东西。我因此不必再伪装自己、远离自我，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有成功过，我就可能永远找不到，那个我确信在这个真正属于我的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由。
·But some failure in life is inevitable.It is impossible to live without failing at something，unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all-in which case，you fail by default.
但有些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。生活不可能没有一点失败，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也就意味着你没有真正的生活过了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定要发生。·Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I discovered that I had a strong will，and more discipline than I had suspected；I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
失败给我的内心带来的是一种安全感，这是我从考试中没有得到过的。失败让我更看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。我发现，我比自己认为的，要拥有更坚强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。
·The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are，ever after，secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself，or the strength of your relationships，until both have been tested by adversity.Such knowledge is a true gift，for all that it is painfully won，and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
从挫折中获得智慧会让你变得坚强，这意味着你比以往任何时候都更具有生存能力。只有接受过逆境的考验，你才会真正认识到你自己，了解到身边的人。这种学问是真正的财富，虽然是通过痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。
·Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications，your CV，are not your life，though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult，and complicated，and beyond anyone‘s total control and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
人的幸福是在于知道生活不只是一份写有你的成就和获得的东西的单子。你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆着两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力的，而谦恭地了解这一点，会让你历经沧桑后能够更好的活下来。
·Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not，and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity，it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
想象力不仅仅是人类设想不存在的事物的独特能力，是为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们怀抱感恩，正因为自己不曾经受的他人苦难。
·Unlike any other creature on this planet，human beings can learn and understand，without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people’s places.
不同于在这个星球上任何其他的生物那样，人类可以学习和理解未曾经历过的东西。他们可以将心比心、设身处地的理解他人。
·And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience，never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages；they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally；they can refuse to know.
然而很多人选择不使用他们的想象力。他们选择留在自己舒适的世界里，从来不愿花力气去想想如果生在别的环境会怎样。他们拒绝去听别人的尖叫，看一眼囚禁的笼子；他们可以封闭自己的内心，只要痛苦不触及个人，他们都可以拒绝去了解。
·If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice；if you choose to identify not only with the powerful，but with the powerless；if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages，then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence，but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped to change.
如果你选择利用自己的地位和影响力，去为那些没有发言权的人发出声援；如果你选择不仅与强者为伍，还会同情帮扶弱者；如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想，那么你的存在，将不仅是你家人的骄傲，更是无数因为你的帮助而改变命运的人的骄傲。·As is a tale，so is life：not how long it is，but how good it is，is what matters.
生活就像故事一样：不在乎长短，而在于质量，这才是实质。
文化采撷
品读哈利波特
《哈利·波特》是英国作家J.K.罗琳的魔幻文学系列小说，共7集，其中前六部以霍格沃茨魔法学校为主要舞台，描写的是主人公哈利·波特在霍格沃茨魔法学校六年的学习生活和冒险故事。第七本描写的是哈利·波特在校外寻找魂器并消灭伏地魔的故事。该系列小说被翻译成67种语言，所有版本的总销售量逾5亿本（截至2008年），名列世界上最畅销小说之列。
《哈利·波特》承载着我们太多的记忆，美颜三巨头是我们共同的偶像，哈利的勇敢善良，赫敏的机智聪明，傻傻的罗恩。罗琳女士把现实社会中的种族主义观点、种族灭绝论等偏见加入了情节中，这些偏见正是伏地魔和食死徒的想法。
《哈利·波特》小说中的善与恶的矛盾对立主要分为两条线索：第一条是以哈利与伏地魔为代表的善与恶的对立，第二条是以哈利自我心中对于恶的抗争作为暗线而展开的。正是因为故事的设定有着哈利的自我抗争，也才使其英雄形象更为饱满。
在罗琳女士为读者呈现情节丰富、内容紧凑的魔法故事的同时，《哈利·波特》系列小说也巧妙地继承了欧洲经典文学。这些继承主要体现在两大方面，即母题的运用和文化寓意的传承。母题也许是文学研究领域最复杂的一个概念，所谓母题“指的是在文学作品中反复出现的人类基本行为、精神现象以及人类关于周边世界的概念，诸如生、死、离别、爱、时间、空间、季节、海洋、山脉、黑夜等等。这些母题在欧洲文明的两大源头为希腊罗马神话传说和圣经。可以说，欧洲经典文学也是罗琳女士创作的源泉。