| 英文原文
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中文原文
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| The significant inscription found on an old key "If I rest, I rust" |
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在一把旧钥匙上发现了一则意义深远的铭文——如果我休息，我就会生锈。 |
| would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. |
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对于那些懒散而烦恼的人来说，这将是至理名言。 |
| Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, |
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甚至最为勤勉的人也以此作为警示： |
| 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. |
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如果一个人有才能而不用，就像废弃钥匙上的铁一样，这些才能就会很快生锈，并最终无法完成安排给自己的工作。 |
| Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, |
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有些人想取得伟人所获得并保持的成就，他们就必须不断运用自身才能， |
| so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture every department of human endeavor. |
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以便开启知识的大门，即那些通往人类努力探求的各个领域的大门，这些领域包括各种职业：科学，艺术，文学，农业等。 |
| Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. |
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勤奋使开启成功宝库的钥匙保持光亮。 |
| 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. |
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如果休米勒在采石场劳作一天后，晚上的时光用来休息消遣的话，他就不会成为名垂青史的地质学家。 |
| 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, |
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著名数学家爱德蒙斯通如果闲暇时无所事事，就不会出版数学词典，也不会发现开启数学之门的钥匙。 |
| 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. |
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如果苏格兰青年弗格森在山坡上放羊时，让他那思维活跃的大脑处于休息状态，而不是借助一串珠子计算星星的位置，他就不会成为著名的天文学家。 |
| Labor vanquishes all |
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劳动征服一切。 |
| not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. |
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这里所指的劳动不是断断续续的，间歇性的或方向偏差的劳动，而是坚定的，不懈的，方向正确的每日劳动。 |
| Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success. |
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正如要想拥有自由就要时刻保持警惕一样，要想取得伟大的，持久的成功，就必须坚持不懈地努力。 |
