胡适 -《不要抛弃学问》
诸位毕业同学：
Dear graduates:
你们现在要离开母校了，我没有什么礼物送给你们，只好送你们一句话罢。
Now, you are going to leave your school. Yet I have no present to give you but a sentence.
这一句话是：“不要抛弃学问。”以前的功课也许有一大部分是为了这张毕业文凭不得已而做的。从今以后，你们可以依自己的心愿去自由研究了。趁现在年富力强的时候，努力做一种专门学问。少年是一去不复返的，等到精力衰时，要做学问也来不及了。即为吃饭计，学问绝不会辜负人的。吃饭而不求学问，三年五年之后，你们都要被后进少年淘汰掉的。到那时再想做点学问来补救，恐怕已太晚了。
The sentence is: Never give up the pursuit of learning. Most of the work you have done may only be for a letter of graduation. But from now on, you can be free to study anything you want. It’s better to dig into one subject when you are still young and energetic. You only live once and once the youth is gone, it will never come back. It will be too late to study when you are old. For livelihood, learning is also of great help. If you just work and not study, after 3 to 5 years, the younger ones will replace you. At that time, probably, you can no longer catch up by retaking learning.
有人说：“出去做事之后，生活问题亟须解决，哪有工夫去读书?即使要做学问，既没有图书馆，又没有实验室，哪能做学问?”
Someone will say, “When we are working, we can barely feed ourselves. There is no time for us to read books. There is also no library nor lab for us to study.
我要对你们说：凡是要等到有了图书馆方才读书的，有了图书馆也不肯读书。凡是要等到有了实验室方才做研究的，有了实验室也不肯做研究。你有了决心要研究一个问题，自然会撙衣节食去买书，自然会想出法子来设置仪器。至于时间，更不成问题。达尔文一生多病，不能多做工，每天只能做一点钟的工作。你们看他的成绩!每天花一点钟看十页有用的书，每年可看三千六百多页书，三十年读约十一万页书。
I have to tell you that if you won’t start reading until there is a library, you won’t do it either even if there is one. Same for a lab. Once you make up you mind to study a question, you will automatically start saving money to buy books and come up with ways to get equipments. As for the time, it is an easier problem. Darwin was beset with diseases all his life. He could not work too much and can only do one hour’s work. So what did he achieve? If you spend one hour in reading 10 pages of a meaningful book, you can finish more than 3600 pages every year. After 30 years, the number will be 110,000.
诸位，十万页书可以使你成一个学者了。可是，每天看三种小报也得费你一点钟的工夫；四圈麻将也得费你一点半钟的光阴。看小报呢，还是打麻将呢，还是努力做一个学者呢?全靠你们自己的选择!
100 thousand pages can make you a scholar. Yet reading 3 kinds of newpapers also costs you one hour and four rounds of playing mahjong will cost you 1.5 hours. You are going to read newspapers or play mahjong or be scholar? It all depends on your own choice.
易卜生说：“你的最大责任是把你这块材料铸造成器。”
Ibsen once said, “Your biggest responsibility is to make yourself a useful person.”
学问便是铸器的工具。抛弃了学问便是毁了你自己。
Learning is the tool. Forsaking learning is the same as destroying yourself.
再会了!你们的母校眼睁睁地要看你们十年之后成什么器。
Good bye! The school will see what persons you will become ten years after your graduation.