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This is a collection of 100 beautiful essays in English.Each essay is good for reading. I hope you will find the essays interesting and knowledge giving.
Make a schedule to read one or two essays/articles daily to keep improving your English language.
There are total 10 web pages , each containing 10 essays.You can progress on page numbers and essays by clicking from the links provided.
| Page 1 | Essays 1-10 |
| Page 2 | Essays 10-20 |
| Page 3 | Essays 21-30 |
| Page 4 | Essays 31-40 |
| Page 5 | Essays 41-50 |
| Page 6 | Essays 51-60 |
| Page 7 | Essays 61-70 |
| Page 8 | Essays 71-80 |
| Page 9 | Essays 81-90 |
| Page 10 | Essays 91-100 |
Passage 21. Two Ways of Thinking of History
There are two ways of thinking of history.
There is, first, history regarded as a way of looking at other things, really the temporal aspect of anything, from the universe to this nib with which I am writing.
Everything has its history.
There is the history of the universe, if only we knew it and we know something of it, if we do not know much.
Nor is the contrast so great, when you come to think of it, between the universe and this pen-nib.
A mere pen-nib has quite a considerable history.
There is, to begin with, what has been written with it, and that might be something quite important.
After all it was probably only one quill-pen or a couple that wrote Hamlet.
Whatever has been written with the pen-nib is part of its History.
In addition to that there is the history of its manufacture: this particular nib is a Relief nib, No. 314, made by R. Esterbrook and Co. in England, who supply the Midland Bank with pen-nibs, from whom I got it a gift, I may say.
But behind this nib there is the whole process of manufacture….
In fact a pen nib implies universe, and the history of it implies its history.
We may regard this way of looking at it history as the time-aspect of all things: a pen-nib, the universe, the fiddle before me as I write, as a relative conception of history.
There is, secondly, what we might call a substantive conception of history, what we usually mean by it, history proper as a subject of study in itself.
Passage 22. On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth
No young man believes he will ever die.
It was a saying of my brother’s, and a fine one.
There is a feeling of Eternity in youth, which makes us amend for everything.
To be young is to be as one of the Immortal Gods.
One half of time indeed is flown the other half remains in store for us with all its countless treasures, for there is no line drawn, and we see no limit to our hopes and wishes.
We make the coming age our own
The vast, the unbounded prospect lies before us.
Death, old age, are words without a meaning that pass by us like the idea air which we regard not.
Others may have undergone, or may still be liable to them we bear a charmed life, which laughs to scorn all such sickly fancies.
As in setting out on delightful journey, we strain our eager gaze forward
Bidding the lovely scenes at distance hail!
And see no end to the landscape, new objects presenting themselves as we advance.
So, in the commencement of life, we set no bounds to our inclinations, nor to the unrestricted opportunities of gratifying them.
We have as yet found no obstacle, no disposition to flag; and it seems that we can go on so forever.
We look round in a new world, full of life, and motion, and ceaseless progress, and feel in ourselves all the vigor and spirit to keep pace with it, and do not foresee from any present symptoms how we shall be left behind in the natural course of things, decline into old age, and drop into the grave.
It is the simplicity, and as it were abstractedness of our feelings in youth that (so to speak) identifies us with nature, and (our experience being slight and our passions strong) deludes us into a belief of being immortal like it.
Passage 23. Of Studies
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.
Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of business.
For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned.
To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar.
They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.
Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.
Reading makes a full man conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
And therefore, if a man write little he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he does not.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.
Passage 24. Of Media
International media such as TV network and magazine always give people in an information age mixed feelings.
Like many other things, media is double-edged.
As primary channels of information,
TV and magazine are convenient and economic sources of information for knowledge, entertainment, and shopping.
Interestingly, sometimes the same piece of information varies considerably in its influences on audiences of different age.
For example, in a TV commercial, a beautiful lady promotes a certain brand of perfume, which supposable makes girls more attractive to boys.
For potential grown-up buyers, the ad is useful because they might be spending time searching for such products.
We save time in shopping and making decision by making use of such advertisements.
However, a teenage girl might get the wrong idea about the concept of perfume.
She could get money from her parents to buy the advertised product.
Worse yet, she might use the appeal strategy employed in the commercial to get ahead in the future.
This is classic bad influence of media for young people’s overspending and inappropriate behaviors.
However, we find it very difficult to weigh between merits and problems of media because they are often tightly incorporated.
For instance, violent scenes in movies are believed to be partially responsible for violence-related crimes, particularly those committed by young people.
But on the contrary, such movies also give people a channel to release their anger, anxiety, and pressure.
Moreover, these movies show us bad and evil as well as punishments for wrongdoings.
Imagine we live in a world whose media is completely clean in such sense.
The dark side of media does not disappear just because we do not talk about it.
Nevertheless certain kinds of information such as porn are better kept away from young people.
In conclusion, media should not be seen simply as bad or good because we need to use information properly to the best of our ability.
But for certain segments of viewers, we should be very careful with regard to the content of information and take measures to keep viewers from possible harmful influences of media.
Passage 25. How to Be Ture to Yourself
My grandparents believed you were either honest or you weren’t.
There was no in between.
They had a simple motto hanging on heir living-room wall:
Life is like a field of newly fallen snow; where I choose to walk every step will show.
They didn’t have to talk about it they demonstrated the motto by the way they lived.
They understood instinctively that integrity means having a personal standard of morality and ethics that does not sell out to selfishness and that is not relative to the situation at hand.
Integrity is an inner standard for judging your behavior.
Unfortunately, integrity is in short supply today and getting scarcer.
But it is the real bottom line in every area of society.
And it is something we must demand of ourselves.
A good test for this value is to look at what I call the Integrity Trial, which consists of three key principles:
Stand firmly for your convictions in the face of personal pressure.
When you know you are right, you can’t back down.
Always give others credit that is rightfully theirs.
Don’t be afraid of those who might have a better idea or who might even be smarter than you are.
Be honest and open about who you really are.
People who lack genuine core values rely on external factors their looks or status in order to feel good about themselves. [01:30.04]Inevitably they will do everything they can to preserve this appearance, but they will do very little, to develop their inner value and personal growth. So be yourself.
Don’t engage in a personal cover-up of areas that are unpleasing in your life.
When it’s tough, do it tough. In other words, face reality and be adult in your responses to life’s challenges.
Self-respect and a clear conscience are powerful components of integrity and are the basis for enriching your relationships with others.
Integrity means you do what you do because it’s right and not just fashionable or politically correct.
A life of principle, of not giving in to the seductive sirens of easy morality, will always win the day.
It will take you forward into the 21st century without having to check your tacks in a rearview mirror.
My grandparents taught me that.
Passage 26. Five Balls of Life
Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air.
You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit and you are keeping all of these in the air.
You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball.
If you drop it, it will bounce back.
But the other four balls family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass.
If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.
They will never be the same.
You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?
Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.
It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important.
Only you know what is best for you.
Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart.
Cling to them as they would be your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future.
By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give.
Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each together.
Don’t be afraid to encounter risks.
It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find.
The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.
Don’t forget, a person s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
Don’t be afraid to learn.
Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don’t use time or words carelessly.
Neither can be retrieved.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery and Today is a gift: that’s why we call it The Present.
Passage 27. The Road to Success
It is well that young men should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate positions.
Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a serious responsibility thrust upon them at the very threshold of their career.
They were introduced to the broom, and spent the first hours of their business lives sweeping out the office.
I notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, and our young men unfortunately miss that salutary branch of a business education.
But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom.
It does not hurt the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary.
I was one of those sweepers myself.
Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is aim high.
I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm.
Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive.
Say to yourself, my place is at the top.
Be king in your dreams.
And here is the prime condition of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged.
Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.
The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also.
They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here, there, and everywhere.
[Don’t put all your eggs in one basket is all wrong.
I tell you put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.
It is easy to watch and carry the one basket.
He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up.
One fault of the American businessmen is lack of concentration.
Passage 28. A Divided House Cannot Stand
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.
We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation.
Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented.
In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved;
I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing, or all the other.
Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.
Have we no tendency to the latter condition?
Let anyone who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination piece of machinery, so to speak compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision.
Let him consider, not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted, but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design and concert of action among its chief architects from the beginning.
Passage 29. Alone Again, Naturally
Alone, we squander life by rejecting its full potential and wasting its remaining promises.
Alone, we accept that experiences unshared are barely worthwhile, that sunsets viewed singly are not as spectacular, that time spent apart is fallow and pointless.
And so we grow old believing we are nothing by ourselves, steadfastly shunning the opportunities for self-discovery and personal growth that solitude could bring us.
We’ve even coined a word for those who prefer to be by themselves: antisocial, as if they were enemies of society.
They are viewed as friendless, suspect in a world that goes around in twos or more and is wary of solitary travelers.
People who need people are threatened by people who don’t.
The idea of seeking contentment alone is heretical, for society steadfastly decrees that our completeness lies in others.
Instead, we cling to each other for solace, comfort, and safety, believing that we are nothing alone insignificant, unfulfilled, lost accepting solitude in the tiniest, most reluctant of slices, if at all, which is tragic, for it rejects God’s precious gift of life.
Ironically, most of us crave more intimacy and companionship than we can bear.
We begrudge ourselves, our spouses, and our partner’s sufficient physical and emotional breathing room, and then bemoan the suffocation of our relationships.
To point out these facts is not to suggest we should abandon all our close ties.
Medical surveys show that the majority of elderly people who live alone, yet maintain frequent contact with relatives and friends, rate their physical and emotional well-being as excellent.
Just as an apple a day kept the doctor away when they were young, an active social calendar appears to serve the same purpose now.
Passage 30. The Blue Days
Everybody has blue days.
These are miserable days when you feel lousy, grumpy, lonely, and utterly exhausted.
Days when you feel small and insignificant, when everything seems just out of reach.
You can’t rise to the occasion.
Just getting started seems impossible.
On blue days you can become paranoid that everyone is out to get you.
This is not always such a bad thing.
You feel frustrated and anxious, which can induce a nail-biting frenzy that can escalate into a triple-chocolate-mud-cake-eating frenzy in a blink of an eye!
On blue days you feel like you are floating in an ocean of sadness.
You are about to burst into tears at any moment and you don’t even know why.
Ultimately, you feel like you are wandering through life without purpose.
You are not sure how much longer you can hang on, and you feel like shouting,
Will someone please shoot me!
It doesn’t take much to bring on a blue day.
You might just wake up not feeling or looking your best, find some new wrinkles, put on a little weight, or get a huge pimple on your nose.
You could forget your dates name or have an embarrassing photograph published.
You might get dumped, divorced, or fired, make a fool of yourself in public, be afflicted with a demeaning nickname, or just have a plain old bad-hair day.
Maybe work is a pain in the butt.
You are under major pressure to fill someone else’s shoes, your boss is picking on you, and everyone in the office is driving you crazy.
You might have a splitting headache, or a slipped dish, bad breath, a toothache, chronic gas, dry lips, or a nasty ingrown toenail.
Whatever the reason, you are convinced that someone up there doesn’t like you.
Oh what to do, what to dooo?