我们唯一害怕的就是害怕本身 The Only Thing We Fear Is Our Own

富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福/Franklin D. Roosevelt

富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福（1882－1945），美国第31位、第32任总统，美国历史上唯一蝉联四届（第四届未任满）的总统。罗斯福在20世纪的经济大萧条和第二次世界大战中扮演了重要的角色，被学者评为美国最伟大的三位总统之一。

President Hoover Mister, Chief Justice, my Friends,

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind' s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people' s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems. Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stem performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

胡弗总统、首席法官先生、同胞们：

我肯定，同胞们都期待着，在就职总统时，我能够如当前形势下人民所要求的那样，坦诚而果断地向他们发表演讲。现在就是坦诚勇敢地讲出真话、实话的最好时机。我们无需因要坦诚地面对国家的现状而退缩，这个伟大的国家会一如既往地承受起一切，并再度复兴、繁荣起来。因此，首先请让我表明我的坚定信念：我们唯一需要害怕的就是害怕本身——这是一种毫无理智、毫无根据的莫名恐惧，它麻痹了人为进步所需的种种努力，把它变为泡影。在任何一个国计民生陷入黑暗的时刻里，坦率而有活力的领导都会得到人民的理解和支持，而人民恰恰是胜利的基础条件。我相信，在当前这一危急时刻，你们会再次将自己的支持无私地给予领导者。

我和你们都要用这种精神来面对我们共同的困难。感谢上帝，这些困难只是物质方面的。价值贬缩到难以想象的程度，税收上升了，我们的支付能力下降了，政府的方方面面都面临着严重的收入短缺，现金贸易中的交换行为也遭到了冻结，不景气的工业企业如枯萎的落叶四处可见，农民们的农产品找不到销路，千家万户多年的积蓄也付之东流。

更重要的是，大量的失业人员面临着严峻的生存问题，大批公民正以艰苦的劳动来换取微薄的报酬。只有愚蠢的乐观主义者才会否认眼前这些最阴暗的现实。

但是，我们的麻烦并不是因为物资上的匮乏。我们没有遭到蝗虫的洗劫。与我们的先辈所战胜的艰难险阻相比，我们更应该感到欣慰，而先辈们正是凭借其信念与无畏一次又一次地转危为安。大自然仍然给予了我们莫大的恩惠，我们应该努力使其倍增。富饶似乎唾手可得，但就在我们见到这一情景并慷慨享用时，它却悄然隐去。首先是因为掌管人类物资交换的统治者失败了，尽管他们固执无能，但也不得不承认自己的失败，并放弃自己的权力。无耻的兑钱商的种种行为，将会受到公众舆论法庭的控告，以及人类心智的排斥。

的确，他们尝试过了，但是他们的努力是用一种完全过时的传统方法。面对信贷的失败，他们只会倡议借贷更多的钱。没有了利益作诱饵，去引导人民追随他们错误的领导，他们不得不求助讲道，含泪恳求人民重新恢复对他们的信心。他们只知道那一代利己主义者的处世规则，他们没有远见。而当一个人没有了远见，灭亡便在所难免。

是的，兑钱商已经从我们文明庙宇的高位逃走了，我们现在可以将这座庙宇恢复到古时的面貌。衡量重建的尺度，建立在我们所体现的比金钱利益更高尚的社会价值的程度上。

幸福并不是单纯地建立在金钱的占有上，而在于取得成就后的欢乐，在于努力创造过程中的激情。我们拼命地追逐那宛如过眼云烟般的利益的时候，一定不能再忘记工作所带来的喜悦和激励，这些灰暗的日子是值得的，有意义的，它们使我们意识到，真正的天命不是要被人服待，而是要服待自己和同胞们。

一旦认识到把物质财富作为衡量成功的标准是错误的，我们就会抛弃那些以个人地位及个人的收益作为衡量公职和高级政治地位的唯一标准的错误概念。我们必须在银行界和商界制止这一行为，它常常使人把圣洁的信托视为无情和自私的不良行为。信心减弱不足为奇，因为它只能依靠诚实、信誉、忠心、无私和责任来维系，如果没有这些，信心就不可能存活。

然而，复兴不仅仅是伦理观念上的改变。这个国家需要行动起来，现在就行动起来。

我们最大的，也是头等重要的任务就是让人民投入到工作中去。只要我们能够理智而勇敢地面对，就没有解决不了的问题，政府招聘可以在一定程度上解决这一问题。我们要像对待紧急战务一样对待这项任务，但与此同时，我们需要通过这些人力，去完成更多急需的项目，以便刺激并重组博大的自然资源工程。

与此同时，我们也必须清楚地意识到工业中心的人口失衡。为了使土地在那些最适合的人中得到更大的发挥，我们必须在全国范围内重新进行分配。是的，通过努力我们可以提高农产品价值，并以此提高城市产品的购买力，而这一切都有助于我们完成任务。从实际出发，尽力避免许多小家庭、农场由于被关闭所带来的损失以及由此造成的越来越大的悲剧，也同样有助于完成此项任务。此外坚持联邦、州、各地政府都立即按要求大幅降价。将目前分散的、不经济、不平等的救济活动统一起来，也同样有助于任务的完成。对于各种形式的交通、通讯及其他涉及公众生活的设施，我们可以进行全国性的计划及监督，这样有助于任务的完成。协助完成任务的方法有很多，唯有空谈无益。我们必须行动起来，立即行动起来。

最后，为了让我们的复苏工作取得进展，我们需要两个预防措施，来抵御旧秩序弊端的重现。对银行业、信贷及投资机构，我们一定要有严格的监督制度；坚决杜绝任何投机倒把的行为，并且确保能够为市场提供充足而可靠的货币。

上述所言，就是实施方针。我会马上敦促新国会的特别会议制定详细的实施方案，同时，我也会向各州请求紧急支援。

通过这个行动计划，我们将致力于使国家体系恢复秩序，并使收入大于支出。我们的国际贸易，虽然很重要，但就现状而言，在紧急性和必要性上，仍次于对国民经济的建立。我赞成，作为实施性的策略，首要事务一定要先行。我将尽一切努力通过重新调整国际经济来恢复国际贸易，但我认为国内的紧急形势已经迫在眉睫，无法等待这种重新协调的完成。

这些指导全国性复苏的特殊措施，其基本思想并不是狭隘的国家主义。我们首要考虑的是坚持美国各部分之间的相互依赖性——这是重视美国式开拓精神的古老而永恒的体现。这才是复苏之路，是最快之路，是复苏得以持久的最强有力的保证。

在国际政策领域里，我将奉行睦邻友好的政策。做一个自重并尊重邻国的国家，做一个履行义务，尊重与他国协定的国家。

如果我能够准确地了解人民的心情的话，我想现在我们已经意识到了从未意识到的问题，我们相互依存，我们不能只索取，还必须奉献。前进时，我们必须像一支经过训练的忠诚队伍，为了共同的准则而愿意牺牲自我。因为，如果缺乏这些准则，我们将寸步难行，而领导也不可能卓有成效。我们已做好了充分准备，为了这些准则，我们愿意献出自己的生命和财产。因为它使领导广大人民谋求福祉成为可能。我提议，为了更伟大的目标，我们所有的人，应该紧紧地团结在一起。这是一种神圣的义务，永远也不要停止，除非在战乱中。

有了这样的誓言，我保证毫不犹豫地领导我们的人民大军，有条不紊地解决大家所普遍关心的问题。我知道以这样的形象与目标行动，在我们从先父手中接过的政府中是可行的。我们的宪法非常简单、可行，它完全可以做到对重点和安排加以修正而不失中心思想，从而足以应付各种特殊需要。这就是为什么我们的宪法体制被证明是目前世界上最具适应能力的政治体制。它承受住了因疆土扩张、外战、内乱以及国际关系所带来的巨大压力。同时我们还希望正常平衡的立法与执法当局能够充分担当起摆在我们面前的前所未有的任务。然而，出于对这次空前行动的需求，我们可能会需要暂时抛开正常公共程序的平衡。

我们怀着全国民众团结一致给我们带来的热情和勇气，怀着寻求传统与珍贵的道德观念的清醒意识，带着不论老少都能因坚守岗位而得到的满足感正视眼前这艰难的岁月，我们的目标是要保证国民生活的完美和长治久安。

我们不是怀疑基本民主制度的未来。美国人民并没有失败。他们在最需要的时候表达了他们想要直接而有力行动的意志。他们要求纪律和领导为他们指引方向，他们使我成为实现他们愿望的工具。我接受这份信任。

在此举国上下奉献的时刻，我们谦卑地请求上帝赐福。愿上帝保护我们中的每一个人，愿上帝在未来的日子里能够指引我。

历史链接

在罗斯福首次就任总统的1933年初，正值经济大萧条的风暴席卷美国，到处是失业、破产、倒闭以及暴跌，到处可见美国的痛苦、恐惧与绝望。罗斯福却表现出一种压倒一切的自信，他在宣誓就职时发表了这篇富有激情的演说，告诉人们：我们唯一害怕的就是害怕本身。在1933年3月4日那个阴冷的下午，新总统的决心和乐观态度，点燃了举国同心同德的新精神之火。

W词汇笔记

paralyze ［ˈpærəlaiz］v.使麻痹；使瘫痪

例 One cigarette can paralyze the cilia for as long as 40 minutes!

吸一支烟能使上皮细胞纤毛麻痹达40分钟。

curtailment ［kə:ˈteilmənt］n.缩减；削减；缩短；紧缩

例 We can only retrieve the situation by curtailment the spending.

我们只有缩减开支才能扭转这种状况。

abdicate ［ˈæbdikeit］v.退位；放弃

例 I abdicate because I want to try something different.

我辞职是因为我想尝试些不一样的东西。

languish ［ˈlæŋɡwiʃ］v.凋萎；憔悴；失去活力；苦思

例 Your soul will languish for eternity.

你的灵魂将永远枯萎。

S小试身手

富饶似乎唾手可得，但就在我们见到这一情景并慷慨享用时，它却悄然隐去。

译__________________________________________________

幸福并不是单纯地建立在金钱的占有上，而在于取得成就后的欢乐，在于努力创造过程中的激情。

译__________________________________________________

我提议，为了更伟大的目标，我们所有的人，应该紧紧地团结在一起。

译__________________________________________________

P短语家族

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo.

address oneself to：针对……而说；致力于

造__________________________________________________

That if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained...

go forward：发生；前进；取得进展

造__________________________________________________