20个英文哲理小故事

英语哲理小故事

(1)

One day, the lion king announced that he was going to get married, and he invited all the animals to attend the wedding ceremony. So the tortoise thought, “I am an animal. I shall attend it as well.” Then he set out on the journey.

On his way, he met other animals. They were stunned for a few seconds and then began to laugh at the tortoise, saying, “How silly you are! The ceremony is starting. Can you make it as you walk so lowly? I’m afraid you still can’t be there after the baby lion king is born, or grow up or even after he gets married.” But the tortoise had made his mind to go.

Many years passed, and he finally got to the entrance of the lion king’s cave. No wonder that the lion king’s wedding had already been finished a long time ago. However, the tortoise found that the cave was so well- decorated and all varieties of animals were there. They told the tortoise, “Today, the son of the old lion king is going to get married.”

How could the tortoise attend the little lion king’s wedding party if he had stopped half- way?

(2)

After a heavy rain, a spider was climbing hard towards his broken net on the wall. Because the wall was too wet, the spider fell down after reaching a certain height. But he continuously climbed up and fell down again and again.

The first man saw it, sighed heavily and said to himself, “My life is just like that spider ’s; busy all the time but getting nothing? ” He became increasingly depressed.

The second man saw it and said, “What a stupid spider. Why doesn’t it make a detour to a drier place? I’d never be that stupid.” So he became smarter.

The third man saw it. He was quite moved by the spider’s perseverance and said to himself, “I won’t let a little spider be stronger and more persistent than me. I ’ll learn from his example and become stronger,” and he did.

(3)

There was a young flower in the desert where all was dry and sad looking. It was growing by itself, enjoying every day and saying to the sun, “When shall I be grown up?” And the sun would say, “Be patient! Each time I touch you, and you will grow a little.” She was so pleased because she would have a chance to bring beauty to this corner of sand. And this is all she wanted to do ---- bring a little bit of beauty to this world.

But one day a hunter came by and stepped on the flower. She was going to

die and she felt so sad. Not because she was dying, but because she would never have a chance to bring a little bit of beauty to this corner of the desert.

The Great Spirit saw her, thinking that she should be living. So he reached down and touched her---- and gave her a second life.

Finally she grew up to be a beautiful flower. And this corner of the desert also became so beautiful because of the small flower.

(4)

Soon after her little brother was born, Sachi began to ask her parents to leave her alone with the new baby. They worried that like most four-year-olds, she might feel jealous and want to hurt (hit or shake) him, so they said no. But she tried every effort to show she wouldn’t hurt him. (But they found her have no sign of jealousy.) She treated the baby with kindness, and her pleas to be left alone with him became more urgent. After a long time of observation, her parents finally allowed it.

Elated, she went into the baby ’s room and shut the door, but it opened a crack---- enough for her curious parents to peek in and listen. They saw little Sachi walk quietly up to her baby brother, put her face close to his and say quietly, “Baby, tell me what God feels like. I’m starting to forget.”

(5)

There are three brothers who all have doctor degrees and work for NASA. One day after finishing dinner in their mother ’s home, again they started discussing the project of landing on the moon and establishing the space station.

One of the daughters-in-law washing dishes in the kitchen complained, “They three discuss those unimaginable things all the time, which makes us foolish compared with them.”

But the mother said, “I used to think that I was foolish. However, I changed my mind remembering that they three spent the whole afternoon fixing all the screen windows around the house last autumn.”

(6)

A customer having lunch in a restaurant asked a waiter, “What will be the weather like tomorrow?”

The waiter answered full of certainty, “It will be the weather I like.”

Puzzled, the customer asked, “How can you know it will be the weather you like?”

The waiter said, “I find that the surroundings can not always go with my mind. So I learn to face everything that I encounter joyfully. Then the weather tomorrow must be the one that I enjoy.”

(7)

Three criminals were sentenced to stay in prison for three years. The warden agreed to satisfy each a request.

The American liked to smoke cigars so he asked for three cases of cigars.

The Frenchman was the most romantic among them all. He wanted a beautiful lady for companion.

The Jewish, however, would like to have a phone connecting the outside society.

Three years later, the first man rushing out of the prison was the American, with his nostrils full of cigars, shouting, “Give me fire! Give me fire!” He turned out to forget to ask for fire.

Then there came the Frenchman. He was seen to hold a child in his arms. The beautiful lady was followed by one child, too, perceiving the third one.

The last coming one was the Jewish. He held the warden’s hand tightly and said, “Thanks to the telephone. I have been keeping contact with the outside society these three years. My business didn’t stop, but has increased by 200%. So I ’ll send you a Rolls-Royce as a gift to show my thankfulness.”

(8) The Fox and the Crow

One day a crow stood on a branch near his nest and felt very happy with the meat in his mouth. At that time, a fox saw the crow with the meat, so he swallowed and eagerly thought of a plan to get the meat. However, whatever the fox said to the crow, the crow just kept silent. Until the fox thought highly of the crow’s beautiful voice, the crow felt flattered and opened his mouth to sing. As soon as the meat fell down to the ground, the fox took the meat and went into his hole.

(9)

There was a little mouse staying at home all day. It dared not to go out, even at night. “The cat is such a terrible animal. He’ll eat me.” it always said, with a shudder of horror.

God sympathized with the little mouse very much, so he turned it into a cat. But the cat which was previously a mouse turned out to be afraid of dogs. “Dogs always appear fiendish. What can I do if I happen to encounter him?” So God turned it into a dog. But it then began to be scared of tigers. And trying his best, God turned it into a tiger.

To his surprise, again the tiger said with its legs shaking, “The hunter’s gun can kill me at any time.”

At last, God was so angry that he turned it back to a mouse. He said, “You ’re

a mouse after all. Even if I turned you into a hunter, you would be in fear of mice. I can not help you because you only have a mouse’s gut.”

(10) Suffering Is a Part of Life

----By Kimberly Kirberger One of the most difficult things to accept about life is the fact that suffering is a part of it. People die, get sick, hurt each other and hurt themselves. One of the most important lessons I have learned is that it is very important to accept the bad with the good, the light with the dark and the pain with the joy. I have learned that without pain I wouldn’t know joy. I have learned that because of things like illness and death it is that much more important to love and live life to the fullest. Great lessons are learned from terrible tragedies, tremendous growth takes place when we are pushed to our very limits, and although I don’t necessarily like the “tough stuff ” I am learning to live with it.

(11)

A varying hare named Clara and his family lived in the northern part of America where was snowy most of the time and was lack of food.

Clara didn’t want to live this kind of life any more. So although his relatives urged him to stay, he resolutely set off for immigration

After months of trek, the open grassland which grew all kinds of grass finally appeared right before Clara. This definitely excited Clara. But right at that time, Clara suddenly felt something wrong. He looked up alertly but only found a shadow diving sharply toward him. “An eagle!” Clara shouted out. But it was too late to escape. Clara was licked up by the eagle.

Actually, eagles are born to be the enemy of varying hares. But in the northern area, varying hares’ fur is the same color with the snow surrounded. The eagles can’t find the hares despite of their sharp eyes. However, white Clara was so outstanding in the green grassland.

Every one has his own advantages. But these advantages are not implicit. Sometimes they may turn to disadvantages.

(12)

A college graduate was new in job and he found something really strange. One of his colleagues was a chair warmer. Most of the time, he would play his digital camera, receive and send his private e-mails or listen to the music. And more strangely, the boss never blamed him.

The graduate was quite curious. How come his colleague could laze away while the competition nowadays was so fierce? May he be the boss’s relative?

One day, his colleague was listening to the music leisurely while the boss

suddenly came and said seriously, “The host computer in the company has something wrong.”

The colleague jumped up right off and rushed to the controlling centre. All the managers were there, waiting anxiously, and knew nothing to do.

The colleague tested the machines and began to fix it silently. Twenty minutes later, the host computer reworked normally. Thanks to his good judging and instant handling, the company saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then the graduate realized that the boss was not stupid to raise a lazy man. The economic loss that his colleague had saved this time must have been hundreds times of his salary.

(13)

On June 11, a country girl working in Shenzhen named Liu Wenxiu was shopping while she saw a man with a knife in his hand was trying to commit a suicide on the pedestrian overcrossing. Liu found the man’s emotion was turning more and more instable, so she wanted to save him. At that time, the police didn’t allow anyone to come close, but Liu claimed that she was the man’s girlfriend so that the police let her get close to the man. On the overcrossing, Liu got to know that the man was only 16 years old. His mother passed away while he was young and his father married to another woman who treated him badly and robbed him blind. Liu said she used to have the same desperate feeling. She hoped the man could come through the difficulties

The man gained Liu’s understanding and burst into tears. Liu kiss the man in the end. Just in the second, the firemen rushed to pull the man back from the railing and saved his life.

Liu said, “I think that if we want to communicate with someone, we need to understand him first, think in his position. He was so sad then that I also cried.” Later, people said the 19-year-old girl gave the man “the angel’s kiss”.

(14)

A student from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University named Chen Wenyuan is working in the school canteen. Recently he is famous for his high speed of dishes receiving. A video on the Internet showed that he could collect three dishes one by one in one second and he collected nearly 20,000 dishes in two hours at noon. People commented that it was easy to do easy things but hard to do them excellently. Although Chen is from a poor family but he has the good qualities which a modern university student needs anxiously, such as self-reliance, self-esteem and perseverance. Chen told us that even the most ordinary things also needed to be done passionately.

(15)

If I ask you to give me a pair of scissors, how would you hand it to me? Do you know that your way of handing the scissors can tell me something?

In the evening, my parents were concentrating on TV programs while my mother was knitting for my father at the same time. After a while, my mother asked my father to give her the scissors. Just in the second of handing, I found that my father ’s hand was holding the knife-edge while handing the shank to my mother. In the same way, my mother also held the knife-edge when giving back the scissors to my father. This little detail just shows my parents ’ love between each other.

Actually, not only the way of handing scissors, but a great many details can show your love or hatred to others. So now which way will you choose to hand the scissors to me?

(16)

The CEO of Japanese Panasonic Electric Company Konosuke Matsushita once treated guests in a restaurant. All the six men ordered steaks. After they finished the main courses, Matsushita asked his assistant to invite the chef and he emphasized that don’t invite the manager but the chef. The assistant noticed that Matsushita only ate half of the steak, so he thought that there wouldn ’t be a pleasant scene later.

When coming, the chef was quite nervous because he knew that this customer was not ordinary. “Is there anything wrong with the steak? ” the chef asked anxiously. “It ’s not a problem for you to cook steak. The steak is really delicious. ” Matsushita answered. “But I can only eat half of it. It’s not because of your cooking. You are an excellent cook. However, I’m already 80 years old, and my appetite is far worse than before.”

The chef and other five guests looked at each other, confusing. Not until a couple of minutes later did they realize that Matsushita was afraid that the chef might be upset when he saw the half of the steak, so he wanted to explain it to the chef himself.

Knowing this story, more and more people would love to do business with him.

(17)

In the late stage of WWⅠ, an airship of the Germany navy was hit by the English army while conducting reconnaissance in the English territorial sky and fell into a marshland. While collecting the remains, the staff of American Army accidentally found a tiny piece of broken map. He thought since the pilot didn’t forget to tear up the map even when hit, the map must have been a very important

one. So immediately, he ordered the soldiers to search other pieces carefully everywhere, and put them together. Finally he found this wasn’t an ordinary battle map as expected, but a German coastal communicative passwords map. He handed the map to the American Military Intelligence, and this help put an end to a passive state of the English marine transportation which was always sneak attacked.

(18)

A piece of ice was quickly melted in the Sahara desert. The ice complained, “Desert is the hell for ice. The North Pole is the palace for ice.”

The sand said to the ice, “Ice is the most valuable in the desert, but the least in the North Pole.”

When we are in a desperate situation, it is the right time for us to be outstanding. On the contrary, if we are in smooth water, everyone is in an average level.

(19)

On the country road, a father was carrying a heavy load of rice which weighs at least 100 kilograms. He walked very fast. His son was walking together with him at the beginning, but soon fell far behind. Although his son ran to his father’s side and tried to catch up with him again, he failed.

So he asked his father, puzzled, “Dad, how come you can walk much faster than me even if you are carrying such a heavy load while I am not?” His father looked at him and answered, “The load is too heavy so that I can’t walk slowly with such a great burden. You have no burden, so surely you can walk slowly. Only with burden and pressure can you walk fast.”

(20)

A group of people went to race cars for the first time. Except for excitement, they also felt a little bit afraid.

But car-racing is a speed game. Those who are audacious began to “fly ” after several rounds, while those who are scary always kept the speed no matter how many cars had passed over them. On their way back, they were still talking about it.

One of them said, “Wow, I finally felt the lightning speed.”

Another one said, “Why didn’t I feel enough speed?”

The others all laughed, because the one feeling not fast enough was the fastest among them, however, the one feeling the lightning speed was actually the slowest.

People ’s experiences differ from each other. So do people’s feelings. People

feeling in agony may not be the most painful ones in the world. People feeling double blessings may not be the most successful ones.