A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.

傳統唯有不斷更新才得以延續。

American author and literary critic Henry James wrote often of Europe and its inhabitants, as exemplified in the novels The Europeans and The portraits of a Lady. In this quotation, James proposes that customary practices that are not updated through the addition of contemporary elements will lose their relevance. This perspective helps to explain how traditional beliefs retain their significance as they are continually subject to reinvention.

這幾年愈發珍惜周遭一切傳統的事事物物：家庭的價值、道德的規範、敬天畏地的存心…但與時俱進的詮釋與實踐，才能讓傳統得以延續。雖然是頂客族，但對家庭依戀不已，長輩也對我們有著無比的慈愛與寬容；雖然怕別人認為自己酸氣十足而沒膽將道德掛在嘴邊，但那始終是我們心中處世的第一把尺；天高地濶，人何其渺小，又怎麼能不戒慎恐懼，不信因果循環呢。

傳統與現代，不會格格不入滴，只要我們有心。

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

不是有我們面對的事物都能被改變，但若不正面以對，則任何事物都無從改變。

James Baldwin, twentieth-century American novelist and civil rights activist, encourages us to confront social issues with which we are dissatisfied. Although we may not achieve every goal we set for ourselves, only those issues that receive our attention may be transformed.

嗯…說的一點不錯，正是因為自己缺乏勇氣，才屢屢閃躲…，這樣又如何能抱怨得呢？

出自LTTC 讀名言學英文