Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down.时间沙滩上的脚印,不是坐出来的。
“时间沙滩上的脚印”也就是“历史的脚印”。这条谚语是个比喻,意思是要为人类作出贡献,在历史上给后人留下一些功名业绩,要靠艰苦努力才能有成就,而不是不花劳力、唾手可得的。
Footprints on the sands of time的比喻出自美国著名诗人Longfellow的诗篇《A Psalm of Life》:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time.
法国皇帝Napoleon也曾在一封信中写道:“We should endeavour to do something so that we may say that we have not lived in vain,that we may leave some mark of ourselves on the sands of time.”
以下也是对一些欺世盗名、不肯实干者的批评。
You don't get something for nothing.
没有付出,不能期望收获。
God gives the milk, but not the pail.
上天赐物资,但需要自行找工具。
请比较另一谚语:No gain withoput pain.