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.

在一把古老的鑰匙上刻有一意味深長的銘文——“如果我休息，我就生銹”，對飽受懶惰之苦的人來說，這句警世恒言真是妙極了，甚至最勤奮的人可能也會采納它，以提醒自己，如果一個人允許其才能沉寂，就像廢棄鑰匙中的鐵一樣，很快，他們就會顯現出生銹的跡象，最終，完不成需要他們完成的工作。

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.

有些人有志于企及偉人的高度，他們就必須不斷磨礪他們的才華，如此他們才可能打開知識的大門，這扇大門守衛著通往某一行業的進口，科學，藝術，文學，農業，人類所涉及的每一個領域。

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.

勤奮讓打開成就大門的鑰匙常用常新。如果Hugh Miller在采石場辛勞一整日，晚上休息放松，縱情愉悅，他就不會成為杰出的地理學家。聞名于世的數學家Edmund Stone，如果將他的休閑時間懶散虛度，他絕不會有數學辭典出版，也絕不會發現通往數學科學道路的鑰匙。如果年少的蘇格蘭小伙子Ferguson在照看山坡上的羊群時，允許他自己忙碌的大腦停下來呼呼大睡，而不是通過一串珠子計算星星的位置，他就絕對不會成為舉世聞名的天文學家。

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.

勤奮可使人所向披靡，但這種勤奮不是心血來潮的，三天打魚兩天曬網式的，或者走火入魔頑固不化的；而是矢志不渝的，持之以恒的，日復一日，正道直行。自由的代價是警鐘長鳴，而高貴持久的成功的代價是勤奮常在。