on achieving success

We cannot travel every path. Success must be won along one line. We must make our business the one life purpose to which every other must be subordinate.

I hate a thing done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly. If it be wrong, leave it undone.

The men of history were not perpetually looking into the mirror to make sure of their own size. Absorbed in their work they did it. They did it so well that the wondering world sees them to be great, and labeled them accordingly.

To live with a high ideal is a successful life. It is not what one does, but what one tries to do, that makes a man strong. “Eternal vigilance,” it has been said, “is the price of liberty.” With equal truth it may be said, “Unceasing effort is the price of success.” If we do not work with our might, others will; and they will outstrip us in the race, and pluck the prize from our grasp.

Success grows less and less dependant on luck and chance. Self-distrust is the cause of most of our failures.

The great and indispensable help to success is character. Character is a crystallized habit, the result of training and conviction. Every character is influenced by heredity, environment and education. But these apart, if every man were not to be a great extent the architect of his own character, he would be a fatalist, and irresponsible creature of circumstances.

Instead of saying that man is a creature of circumstance it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance. Form the same materials one man and bricks, until the architect can make them something else.

The true way to gain much is never to desire to gain too much. Wise men don’t care for what they can’t have.

翻译：

论成功 海明威

人不可能经历每一条道路，必须选择一条道路走下去并最终获得成功。我们必须将自己所从事的事业看做毕生奋斗的目标，其他的目标则从属于这个大目标。

我恨痛恨做事半途而废。如果这件事是对的，就大胆勇敢地去做；如果这件事不对，就不要去做。

历史上的伟人都不是终日瞻观镜中的自己来衡量自身的形象的。他们的形象来自对事业全身心的投入与追求，他们是如此的卓越超凡，于是芸芸众生觉得他们很伟大，并因此称他们为伟人。

若有伟大的理想支撑，便是成功的人生。所谓强人，并不在于他做了什么，而在于他尝试去做的事情。有言道，“恒久的警惕是自由的代价”，同样地，“不懈的努力是成功的代价”。如果我们不全力以赴，别人就会赶超我们，并从我们手中夺去胜利的果实。 成功不能完全依靠运气和机遇。自我怀疑是很多人失败的缘由。 性格是缺德成功不可或缺的重要助力。性格是一种固化形成的习惯，是不断培养并艰辛与此的结果。每个人的性格都会受到遗传因素、环境和教育的影响。但除此之外，如果人在很大程度上不恩能够成为自己性格的构筑着，那么他就会沦为宿命论者，从而成为环境的失败造物。

与其说人是环境的产物，不如说人是环境的建造者。用同样的材料，有人能建造出宫殿，而有人只能建成简陋的小屋。砖头还是那些砖头，水泥还是那些水泥，只是建筑师不同而已。

想得到的多久永远不要奢望太多。

聪明的人不会为他们无法拥有的东西叹息。