投资 · 创业者自述

塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯:节俭·摘录 207

塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯《节俭》· Thrift · 投资

Let a man resolve and determine that he will advance, and the first step of advancement is already made. The first step is half the battle. In the very fact of advancing himself, he is in the most effectual possible way advancing others. He is giving them the most eloquent of all lessons--that of example; which teaches far more emphatically than words can teach. He is doing, what others are by imitation incited to do. Beginning with himself, he is in the most emphatic manner teaching the duty of self-reform and of self-improvement; and if the majority of men acted as he did, how much wiser, how much happier, how much more prosperous as a whole, would society become. For, society being made up of units, will be happy and prosperous, or the reverse, exactly in the same degree as the respective individuals who compose it.

出处: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
定位:Excerpt 207 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录

白话

一个人只要下定决心要进步,第一步就已经迈出去了,而第一步就是成功的一半。他提升自己的过程,本身就是在最有效地带动别人:他做出了榜样,而榜样的力量比说教强得多。别人看到就会跟着学。他从自己做起,就是在教大家自我改进、自我完善。如果大多数人都这样做,社会整体就会明智得多、幸福得多、兴旺得多。因为社会是由一个个具体的人组成的,个人是什么样,社会就是什么样。所以别等别人先变,自己先动起来,周围人自然会受影响。

上下文

斯迈尔斯在《节俭》中主张个人改良是社会改良的基础。这段话强调以身作则,认为社会好坏取决于每个个体的状态。

今日一问

你想让身边人改变的那个习惯,你自己先做到了吗?

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