Treasure Your Time
"Time," says the proverb, "is money". This means that every moment well-spent may put some money into our pockets.
If our time is usefully employed, it will either turn out some useful and important piece of work which will fetch its price in the market, or it will add to our experience and increase our capacities so as to enable us to earn money when the proper opportunity comes. Let those, who think nothing of wasting time, remember this.
Our life is nothing more than our time. To kill time is therefore a form of suicide. We are shocked when we think of death, and we spare no pains, no trouble, and no expense to preserve life.
But we are too often indifferent to the loss of an hour or of a day, forgetting that our life is the sum total of the days and of the hours we live. A day or an hour wasted is therefore so much life forfeited. Our life is a brief span measuring some seventy or eighty years in all.
But nearly one third of this has to be spent in sleep; some years have to be spent over our meals; some in making journeys on land and voyages by sea; some in merry-making; some in watching over the sick-beds of our nearest and dearest relatives.
Now if all these years were to be deducted from the term over which our life extends, we shall find about twenty or thirty years at our disposal for active work. Whoever remembers this can never willingly waste a single moment of his life.
All time is precious; but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any other portion of our existence. For those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our capacities.
If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. Just as money laid out at interest doubles and trebles itself in time, so the precious hours of childhood and youth, if properly used, will yield us incalculable advantages.
珍惜你的时间
谚语说：“时间就是金钱”。这意味着，每一刻都能让我们的口袋里有钱。
如果我们的时间得到有效利用，它要么会产生一些有用而重要的工作，在市场上会有价格；要么它会增加我们的经验，增加我们的能力，以便在适当的机会到来时能够赚钱。让那些不在乎浪费时间的人记住这一点。
我们的生命就是我们的时间。因此，消磨时间就是一种自杀。当我们想到死亡时，我们感到震惊，我们不遗余力，不辞辛劳，不惜一切代价来保全生命。
但是，我们常常对失去一小时或一天漠不关心，忘记了我们的生命是一天和一小时的总和。因此，浪费一天或一个小时就是丧失生命。我们的生命是短暂的，总共有七八十年。
但其中近三分之一的时间必须在睡眠中度过；有些年要花在吃饭上；有些花在陆地旅行和海上航行上；有些花在欢乐中；有些花在照看我们最近和最亲爱的亲戚的病床上。
如果把这些年都从我们的寿命中扣除，我们会发现大约有二三十年可以用来积极工作。记住这一点的人永远不会愿意浪费生命中的任何一刻。
所有的时间都是宝贵的，但是我们的童年和青春的时间比我们生命中的任何其他部分都更宝贵。因为在这些时期，我们可以独自获得知识和发展我们的能力。
如果我们让生命的这些清晨时光溜走，我们将永远无法挽回损失。正如用来付息的钱在时间上翻了一番又三倍，童年和青年时期宝贵的时光，如果使用得当，将给我们带来不可估量的好处。
注解：
1.capacity [k??pæsiti] n.容量；才能，能力；身份，职位
2. indifferent[in?difr?nt] a.冷漠的，不关心的，不积极的；一般的
3. forfeit[?f?:fit] vt.(因犯罪等而)丧失 n.没收物
4. deduct [di?d?kt] vt.扣除，减去
5. disposal [dis?p?uz?l] n.丢掉，清除；排列，布置
6. portion [?p?:??n] n.一部分，一份 vt.分配，把…分给
7. recoup [ri?ku:p] v.重获，补偿
8. treble [?treb?l] a.三倍(重)的
9. incalculable [in'kælkjul?bl] adj. 不可数的，无数的，无法预料的
