英语经典美文诵读100篇：038.our family creed
[00:13.17]They are the principles on which my wife and I have tried to bring up our family.
[00:18.32]They are the principles in which my father believed and by which he governed his life.
[00:24.02]They are the principles, many of them, which I learned at my mother’s knee.
[00:28.88]They point the way to usefulness and happiness in life, to courage and peace in death.
[00:34.93]If they mean to you what they mean to me,
[00:37.87]they may perhaps be helpful also to our sons for their guidance and inspiration.
[00:44.33]Let me state them:
[00:46.17]I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life,
[00:51.71]liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
[00:54.44]I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
[01:04.35]I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law;
[01:09.65]that government is the servant of the people and not their master.
[01:15.27]I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand;
[01:20.36]that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.
[01:28.72]I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure,
[01:38.07]whether in government, business or personal affairs.
[01:42.60]I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.
[01:48.98]I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man’s word should be as good as his bond, that character -
[01:56.83]not wealth or power or position - is of supreme worth.
[02:03.15]I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind
[02:08.82]and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed
[02:16.72]and the greatness of the human soul set free.
[02:21.17]I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual’s highest fulfillment,
[02:31.24]greatest happiness and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.
[02:39.20]I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate;
[02:47.43]that right can and will triumph over might.
[02:53.18]These are the principles, however formulated, for which all good men and women throughout the world,
[03:00.46]irrespective of race or creed, education, social position or occupation, are standing,
[03:08.56]and for which many of them are suffering and dying.
[03:13.34]These are the principles upon which alone a new world recognizing the brotherhood of man
[03:19.82]and the fatherhood of God can be established.
