编者按：理查德·尼克松，美国第37任总统。尼克松有雄辩的口才和非凡的演讲技巧，被公认为“天才演说家”。本文节选自他1969年1月20日首任总统的就职演说。尼克松以婉转且富有文采的话语阐述了其理念：“我们的命运所赐予的不是绝望之酒,而是机会之杯。”

Riders on the Earth Together

Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique.

But some stand out as moments of beginning, in which courses are set that shape decades or centuries. This can be such a moment. Forces now are converging that make possible, for the first time, the hope that many of man’s deepest aspirations can at last be realized.

As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon’s gray surface on Christmas Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth —and in that voice so clear across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God’s blessing on its goodness.

In that moment, their view from the moon moved poet Archibald MacLeish to write:

"To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now they are truly brothers."

Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness —and "riders on the earth together", let us go forward, firm in our faith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers, but sustained by our confidence in the will of God and the promise of man.