1考
As a boy and then as an adult, I never lost my wonder at the personality that was Einstein. He was the only person I knew who had come to terms with himself and the world around him. He knew what he wanted and he wanted only this: to understand within his limits as a human being the nature of the universe and the logic and simplicity in its functioning. He knew there were answers beyond his intellectual reach. But this did not frustrate him. He was content to go as far as he could.
先是作为孩子，后来长大成人，我始终对爱因斯坦的个性怀有惊奇之心。

他是我所认识的人中唯一与自己及周围世界达成妥协的人。

他知道自己要什么，而他想要的只是：在他作为一个人的能力范围之内理解宇宙的本质以及宇宙运行的逻辑性和单一性。

他知道有些问题的答案会超出他的智力所及。

但这并不会让他沮丧。

只要能够尽力他就心满意足了。

2考
Judge for yourself.Jefferson refused to accept other people’s opinions without careful thought. “Neither believe nor reject anything,”he wrote to his nephew, “because any other person has rejected or believe it. Heaven has given you a mind for judging truth and error. Use it.”
自己作判断。

杰斐逊拒绝不经仔细考虑就接受其他人的意见。

他在给侄子的信中写道：“不要随便因为其他人相信什么，你就去相信什么，也不要因为其他人拒绝什么，你就拒绝什么。

上天赐给你头脑来判断真理和谬误。

运用它吧。

”
3考
In the 23 years of our friendship, I never saw him show jealousy, vanity, bitterness, anger, resentment, or personal ambition. He seemed immune to these emotions. He was beyond any pretension Although he corresponded with many of the world’s most important people, his stationery carried only a watermark—W—for Woolworth’s .
在我们二十三年的友谊中，我从未见他表现出嫉妒、虚荣、痛苦、愤怒、怨恨或个人野心。

他似乎对这些具有免疫力。

他毫无矫饰之心，虚荣之意。

虽然他与世界上的许多要人通信，他的信笺上却只有一个水印字母W，代表沃尔沃斯商店。

4考
While I was waiting to enter university, I saw advertised in a local newspaper a teaching post at a school in suburb of London about ten miles from where I lived. Being very short of money and wanting to do something useful, I applied, fearing as I did so, that without a degree and with no experience in teaching my chances of getting the job were slim.
正是等待上大学期间，我看到地方报纸上登的一则广告，说在伦敦郊区离我的住处大约10英里的一所学校要招聘一名教师。

当时我正缺钱，并且也想做些事，于是我就申请了。

申请时也担心自己既没有学位也没有教学经验，被录用的可能性不大。

5考
I first heard this tale in India, where it is told as if true —though any naturalist would know it couldn’t be. Later someone told me that the story appeared in a magazine shortly before the First World War. That magazine story, and the person who wrote it, I have never been able to track down.
我最初听到这个故事是在印度，那儿的人今天讲起来仍好像是真有其事似的——尽管任何一位博物学家都知道这不可能是真的。

后来有人告诉我，在第一次世界大战发生前不久，这个故事曾刊登在一家杂志上。

但那登在杂志上的故事和写故事的人我却一直没能查到。

6考
Another puzzle that Einstein could never understand was his own fame. He had developed theories that were profound and capable of exciting relatively few scientists. Yet his name was a household word across the civilized world. “ I’ve had good ideas, and so have other men,” he once said. “But it’s been my good fortune that my ideas have been accepted.”
爱因斯坦一直没能理解的另一个谜是他自己的名望。

他的理论都非常深奥，只有很少的科学家会感兴趣。

然而他的名字在整个文明世界却家喻户晓。

有一次他说：“我有很好的思想，别人也有很好的思想。

只是我的运气好，我的思想被世人接
受了。

”
7
Jefferson felt that the people “may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment. Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
杰斐逊觉得人民是“可以信赖的。

应该让他们听到一切，无论真实还是虚假的东西，相信他们能够做出正确的判断。

如果让我来决定是要政府而没有报纸，还是要报纸而没有政府，我将毫不犹豫地选择后者。

”
8
Jefferson felt that the present should never be chained to customs which have lost their usefulness. He did not fear new ideas, nor did he fear the future. “How much pain,” he remarked, “has been caused by evils which have never happened! I expect the best, not the worst. I steer my ship with hope, leaving fear behind.”
杰斐逊认为绝不应用那些过时无用的习俗来束缚现在。

他不害怕新思想，也不恐惧未来。

他曾经说：“有多少痛苦是由一些从来没有发生过的灾难引起的啊！（人们由于无知而杞人忧天，由此遭受了多少痛苦啊！）我期待最好的东西，而不是最坏的东西。

我满怀希望地驾驶着自己的航船，把恐惧远远地抛开。

”。