| Companionship of Books | 以书为伴（节选） |
| A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men. | 通常看一个人读些什么书就可知道他的为人，就像看他同什么人交往就可知道他的为人一样，因为有人以人为伴，也有人以书为伴。无论是书友还是朋友，我们都应该以最好的为伴。 |
| A good book may be among the best of friends. | 好书就像是你最好的朋友。 |
| It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change. | 它始终不渝，过去如此，现在如此，将来也永远不变。 |
| It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. | 它是最有耐心，最令人愉悦的伴侣。 |
| It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. | 在我们穷愁潦倒，临危遭难时，它也不会抛弃我们， |
| It always receives us with the same kindness; amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age. | 对我们总是一如既往地亲切。在我们年轻时，好书陶冶我们的性情，增长我们的知识；到我们年老时，它又给我们以慰藉和勉励。 |
| Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. | 人们常常因为喜欢同一本书而结为知已，就像有时两个人因为敬慕同一个人而成为朋友一样。 |
| There is an old proverb, “Love me, love my dog.” | 有句古谚说道：“爱屋及屋。” |
| But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my book.” | 其实“爱我及书”这句话蕴涵更多的哲理。 |
| The book is a truer and higher bond of union. | 书是更为真诚而高尚的情谊纽带。 |
| Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. | 人们可以通过共同喜爱的作家沟通思想，交流感情，彼此息息相通， |
| They live in him together, and he in them. | 并与自己喜欢的作家思想相通，情感相融。 |
| A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. | 好书常如最精美的宝器，珍藏着人生的思想的精华，因为人生的境界主要就在于其思想的境界。 |
| Thus, the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters. | 因此，最好的书是金玉良言和崇高思想的宝库，这些良言和思想若铭记于心并多加珍视，就会成为我们忠实的伴侣和永恒的慰藉。 |
| Books possess an essence of immortality. | 书籍具有不朽的本质， |
| They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. | 是为人类努力创造的最为持久的成果。 |
| Temples and statues decay, but books survive. | 寺庙会倒坍，神像会朽烂，而书却经久长存。 |
| Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago. | 对于伟大的思想来说，时间是无关紧要的。多年前初次闪现于作者脑海的伟大思想今日依然清新如故。 |
| What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. | 彼时所言所思，至今读来仍跃然纸上，栩栩如生。 |
| The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive but what is really good. | 时间惟一的作用是淘汰糟粕，因为只有真正的佳作才能经世长存。 |
| Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. | 书籍介绍我们与最优秀的人为伍，使我们置身于历代伟人巨匠之间， |
| We hear what they said and did; we see the as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe. | 如闻其声，如观其行，如见其人，同他们情感交融，悲喜与共，感同身受。我们觉得自己仿佛在作者所描绘的舞台上和他们一起粉墨登场。 |
| The great and good do not die, even in this world. | 即使在人世间，伟大杰出的人物也永生不灭。 |
| Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. | 他们的精神被载入书册，传于四海。 |
| The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which on still listens. | 书是人生至今仍在聆听的智慧之声，永远充满着活力。 |