john steinbeck's speech at the nobel banquet at the city hall in stockholm, december 10, 1962
i thank the swedish academy for finding my work worthy of this highest honor.
in my heart there may be doubt that i deserve the nobel award over other men of letters whom i hold in respect and reverence - but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.
it is customary for the recipient of this award to offer personal or scholarly comment on the nature and the direction of literature. at this particular time, however, i think it would be well to consider the high duties and the responsibilities of the makers of literature.
such is the prestige of the nobel award and of this place where i stand that i am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practiced it through the ages.
literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair.
literature is as old as speech. it grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.
the skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. from the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.
humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. my great predecessor, william faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal fear so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about.
faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. he knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being.
this is not new. the ancient commission of the writer has not changed. he is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.
furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat - for courage, compassion and love. in the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation.
i hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man, has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
the present universal fear has been the result of a forward surge in our knowledge and manipulation of certain dangerous factors in the physical world.
it is true that other phases of understanding have not yet caught up with this great step, but there is no reason to presume that they cannot or will not draw abreast. indeed it is a part of the writer's responsibility to make sure that they do.
with humanity's long proud history of standing firm against natural enemies, sometimes in the face of almost certain defeat and extinction, we would be cowardly and stupid to leave the field on the eve of our greatest potential victory.
understandably, i have been reading the life of alfred nobel - a solitary man, the books say, a thoughtful man. he perfected the release of explosive forces, capable of creative good or of destructive evil, but lacking choice, ungoverned by conscience or judgment.
nobel saw some of the cruel and bloody misuses of his inventions. he may even have foreseen the end result of his probing - access to ultimate violence - to final destruction. some say that he became cynical, but i do not believe this. i think he strove to invent a control, a safety valve. i think he found it finally only in the human mind and the human spirit. to me, his thinking is clearly indicated in the categories of these awards.
they are offered for increased and continuing knowledge of man and of his world - for understanding and communication, which are the functions of literature. and they are offered for demonstrations of the capacity for peace - the culmination of all the others.
less than fifty years after his death, the door of nature was unlocked and we were offered the dreadful burden of choice.
we have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to god.
fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world - of all living things.
the danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. the test of his perfectibility is at hand.
having taken godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.
man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.
so that today, st. john the apostle may well be paraphrased: in the end is the word, and the word is man - and the word is with men.
不要害怕你的生活将要结束，应该担心你的生活永远不会真正开始。 -- 纽曼
The unexamined life is not worth living. -- Socrates
混混噩噩的生活不值得过。 -- 苏格拉底
Difficult circumstances serve as a textbook of life for people.
困难坎坷是人们的生活教科书。
It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly. --Issac Asimoy
如果勇敢的正视困难， 困难就会消失， 这一直是我的人生哲学。--艾萨克·阿西莫艾
A life without a purpose is a ship without s rudder.
人生无目的，犹如船失舵。
Whenever you have an aim you must sacrifice something of freedom to attain it. -- William Somerset Maugham
不论什么时候，只要你有一个目标，就得牺牲一定的自由去实现它。--W·S·毛姆
All things are difficult before they are easy.
万事开头难。
Business before pleasure.
先苦后甜/先办正事。
Never put off till tomorrow what may be done today.
今日事，今日毕。
Hope is life and life is hope.
希望才有人生，人生要有希望。
Where there is life,there is hope.
生命不息，希望长在。
Man's dearest possession is life, and it is given to him to live but once. He must live so as to feel no torturing regrets for years without purpose, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past---Ostorovsky
人最宝贵的东西是生命。生命属于我们只有一次。一个人的生命应该这样度过：当他回首往事时，他不因虚度年华而悔恨，也不因过去碌碌无为而羞耻
The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes. —— Thomas Hardy
一个希望的突然失落会留下一处伤痕，即使那希望最终会实现，也决 不能完全平复。—— 托马斯·哈代
The more mistakes you make, the more progress you will make.
你犯的错误越多，你的进步就越快。
Self-trust is the essence of heroism.
自信为英雄品质之本。
A man may learn wit every day.
学无止境.
A strong man will struggle with the storms of fate. -- Thomas Addison
强者能同命运的风暴抗争。 -- 爱迪生
A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. -- J. Burroughs
一个人可以失败很多次，但是只要他没有开始责怪旁人，他还不是一个失败者。 -- 巴勒斯
Energy and persistence conquer all things. -- Benjamin Franklin
能量加毅力可以征服一切。 -- 富兰克林
Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. --John Steinbeck
主意就象野兔，你若有一对，学会怎样驯养它们，你很快就会有一打。--约翰·斯坦贝克
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. --Bertrand Russell
美好的生活是一种由爱所激励和由知识所指导的生活。 --罗素
If you can make it here,you make it anywhere.
如果你能在这儿做到了,你能在任何地方做到.
Man's greatness lies in his power of thought. —— Blaise Pascal
人的伟大之处在于他的思想的力量。—— B· 帕斯卡
It is strange that all great men should have some little grain of madness mingled with whatever genius they possess. -- Moliere
很奇怪，大凡为人在他们所拥有的天分中都混杂着一些疯狂的成分。-- 莫里哀
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. He seeks regions hitherto unexplored. --Abraham Lincoln
卓越的天才不屑走旁人走过的路。他寻找迄今未开拓的地区。--林肯
All great truths are obvious truths. But no all obvcious truths are great truths. —— A. Huxley
伟大的真理都是明摆着的事实，但并不是所有显而易见的事实都是伟大的真理。——A·赫胥黎
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence. --Robert Frost
教育就是要使人具备一种能力， 可以听到任何话都不动怒或丧失自信。--罗伯特·弗罗斯特
Love is an active power in man, a power which breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow men, which unites him with others; love makes him ovrecome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet it permits to be himself, to retain his integrity. --Erich Fromn
爱是活跃于人心中的一种力量，它冲破人与人之间的隔阂，使我们紧紧相连; 它使我们战胜孤独无助，却仍使我们保持自我个性的独立完整。 -- 埃立克·弗洛姆
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. --Emerson
缺乏热情是完成不了伟业的。--爱默生
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below. --John Dryden
错误就像浮在水面的稻草;要想寻找珍珠就得潜到他的下面。--约翰·德莱顿
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control thoughts. --Charles Darwin
道德修养有可能达到的最高境界是认识到我们应该控制自己的思想。 --达尔
In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. --William Osler
在科学上，功劳归于使全世界信服的人，而不归于首先有这种想法的人。--威廉·奥斯勒
The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
最深的思想或感情就如同深睡的矿藏，在等待着同样深沉的头脑与心灵去发现和开采。 --爱默生
The man who has made up his mind to win will never say " Impossible".( Napoleon )
凡是决心取得胜利的人是从来不说“不可能”的。(拿破仑)
Dare and the world always yields. If it beats you sometimes, dare it again and again and it will succumb. ( W. M. Thackeray )
大胆挑战，世界总会让步。如果有时候你被它打败了，不断地挑战，它总会屈服的。(萨克雷)
No man is useless in this world who lightens the burden of someone else. ( C. Dickens )
在这个世界上能为别人减轻负担的人都是有用的。(狄更斯)
While there is one untrodden tractFor intellect or men are free to think and act,Life is worth living. ( A. Austin )
只要还有一块知识和意志尚未征服的领域，只要人们能自由思考和行动，生活就是值得的。(奥斯汀)
Don't believe that winning is really everything. It's more important to stand for something. If you don't stand for something, what do you win? ( Lane Kirkland )
不要认为取胜就是一切，更重要的是要有信念。倘若你没有信念，那胜利又有什么意义呢?(柯克兰)
Have an aim in life, or your energies will all be wasted. ( R. Peters )
人生应该树立目标，否则你的精力会白白浪费。(彼得斯)
banquet speech
john steinbeck's speech at the nobel banquet at the city hall in stockholm, december 10, 1962
i thank the swedish academy for finding my work worthy of this highest honor.
in my heart there may be doubt that i deserve the nobel award over other men of letters whom i hold in respect and reverence - but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.
it is customary for the recipient of this award to offer personal or scholarly comment on the nature and the direction of literature. at this particular time, however, i think it would be well to consider the high duties and the responsibilities of the makers of literature.
such is the prestige of the nobel award and of this place where i stand that i am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practiced it through the ages.
literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair.
literature is as old as speech. it grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.
the skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. from the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.
humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. my great predecessor, william faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal fear so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about.
faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. he knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being.
this is not new. the ancient commission of the writer has not changed. he is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.
furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat - for courage, compassion and love. in the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation.
i hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man, has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
the present universal fear has been the result of a forward surge in our knowledge and manipulation of certain dangerous factors in the physical world.
it is true that other phases of understanding have not yet caught up with this great step, but there is no reason to presume that they cannot or will not draw abreast. indeed it is a part of the writer's responsibility to make sure that they do.
with humanity's long proud history of standing firm against natural enemies, sometimes in the face of almost certain defeat and extinction, we would be cowardly and stupid to leave the field on the eve of our greatest potential victory.
understandably, i have been reading the life of alfred nobel - a solitary man, the books say, a thoughtful man. he perfected the release of explosive forces, capable of creative good or of destructive evil, but lacking choice, ungoverned by conscience or judgment.
nobel saw some of the cruel and bloody misuses of his inventions. he may even have foreseen the end result of his probing - access to ultimate violence - to final destruction. some say that he became cynical, but i do not believe this. i think he strove to invent a control, a safety valve. i think he found it finally only in the human mind and the human spirit. to me, his thinking is clearly indicated in the categories of these awards.
they are offered for increased and continuing knowledge of man and of his world - for understanding and communication, which are the functions of literature. and they are offered for demonstrations of the capacity for peace - the culmination of all the others.
less than fifty years after his death, the door of nature was unlocked and we were offered the dreadful burden of choice.
we have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to god.
fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world - of all living things.
the danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. the test of his perfectibility is at hand.
having taken godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.
man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.
so that today, st. john the apostle may well be paraphrased: in the end is the word, and the word is man - and the word is with men.
