Romain Rolland said, "The man I call a hero is not a man of thought or strength; but a man of greatness by heart." Without great character, there are no great people, not even great artists, no great actors; some are just empty idols..."
In the history of mankind, there have been some great people who did not succumb to fate and had the strength to overcome the darkness of doom and grow from difficulties, all of whom had great spirits and great character. The writer Zweig once said to his readers: "Read the biography of the great man, and be with the brave heart!"
The careers of the people in these biographies are almost always a long-term suffering. Or a tragic fate that wears their souls in the flesh and spirit, exercising on the anvils of poverty and disease; or witnessing the suffering of their fellow citizens, their hearts broken, and their eternal days of suffering; they are great because of perseverance, but they are also great because of calamities. So O unfortunate people! Do not be too grumpy, the best of humanity is with you. Draw on their courage as nourishment for us; if we are too weak, rest our heads on their laps for a while. They will comfort us. In these divine hearts, there is a clear force and a strong love that gushes out like a torrent...
The more we are in adversity, the more we need spiritual support, and more than ever, we need to be stoic, struggling, and dare to challenge the courage.
- Editor
In this heroic procession, I give the chief to be the strong and pure Beethoven. In the midst of his suffering, he had hoped that his example would support other victims, "may the unfortunate man, seeing a victim as unfortunate as he is, in spite of the obstacles of nature, do everything in his power to become a worthy man by which he can masturbate." After years of superman's struggle and effort, overcoming his suffering, and accomplishing what he called "braging courage to poor mankind," the promand of the province, in response to a friend who had mentioned God to him, said, "Oh man, you help yourself." --Romain Rolland
Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in the attic of a dilapidated house in Tenten, near Cologne. His father was an unintelligent and alcoholic tenor singer. The mother was a maid, the daughter of a cook. Due to the early death of his mother and the incompetence of his father, his unfortunate childhood took on the burden of family reality very early.
Despite his unmistakable musical talent, his life was exacerbated by the fact that from the fall of 1815, Beethoven's ears were completely deaf. Regarding the rehearsal of "Fidelio" in 1822, there is a tragic account of Hinterle. "Beethoven asked to personally conduct the final prelude... From the second part of the first act, it is obvious that he did not hear the singing on the stage. He slowed down the progress of the music much; as the orchestra followed his baton, the singers on the stage hurried forward with their own care. The result is that the whole world is out of order. The orchestra conductor, Onglov, without giving any reason, proposed a break, and Beethoven became uneasy, and he looked around, trying to guess the crux of the problem from different faces: but everyone was silent. He suddenly called out to me in a commanding tone. As I approached, he gave me the talk manual and motioned for me to write. I wrote: I beg you not to continue, and I will tell you why when I go back. So he jumped off the stage and shouted at me, "Let's go!" He ran home in one breath; he fell on the bed, his hands holding his face; he did not say a word during the meal, maintaining a look of deepest pain. After dinner, when I wanted to say goodbye, he kept me and said he didn't want to be alone at home. When we broke up, tatsumi, he asked me to accompany me to the doctor, famous for his otology... In all of my friendship with Beethoven, not a single day has been compared to the fatal day of this November. His heart was wounded, and he never forgot the impression of this terrible scene until his death. ”
The 2006 biopic Copy Beethoven tells the story of the talented musician and the manuscript scribe
In this abyss of misery, Beethoven engaged in the praise of joy. It was his life's plan. He had this idea since 1793 when he was in Ponn. He sang joy all his life, and he made this singing the end of one of his great works. The form of the hymn, and in which work these questions were placed, he hesitated all his life. We should note that the original title of the Ninth Symphony is not the Choral Symphony, which is often used today, but the Symphony ending with a chorus of odes to joy.
This unfortunate man, who had suffered for a long time, always wanted to sing the praises of the beauty of "joy"; year after year, he postponed this undertaking until the last day of his life.
His tome finally triumphed over vulgarity. He was struck by the frivolous atmosphere of Vienna, knowing that Vienna was completely under the influence of Rossini and Italian opera. On May 7, 1824, Beethoven held the first concert of the D-tone Mass and the Ninth Symphony in Vienna, with unprecedented success. When Beethoven appeared, he was welcomed by the crowd five times, and in this country that pays attention to etiquette, it is customary to use only three applause for the appearance of the royal family. So the police had to intervene. The symphony caused a frenzied commotion, and many people began to cry.
Beethoven fainted after the finale; everyone carried him to Hintler's house, where he slept dimly with his clothes on, drinking or eating until the next morning. But the victory was temporary and unprofitable for Beethoven. Concerts didn't make him any money. The embarrassment of material life remains the same. He was poor, sick, lonely, but he overcame—over the mediocrity of mankind, over his own destiny, over his pain.
Stills from the movie "Copy Beethoven"
Therefore, it can be said that he has reached the goal he has longed for all his life. He has seized the joy, though he has to fall into the pain of the past from time to time. The triumph of the Ninth Symphony seems to have left its glorious mark on Beethoven's heart. So much so that Dr. Speyler saw him in 1826 and said that his complexion had become happy and exuberant.
However, death still creeps in. At the end of November 1826, Beethoven lay on his dying bed, and after three surgeries, he swallowed his last breath in the wind and rain, in the snow and wind, and in a thunderclap.
Dear Beethoven! How many people have praised his artistic greatness. But he is far from being the first musician, but the most heroic force in modern art. For those who generally suffer and struggle, he is the biggest and best friend. When we are grieved by the calamity of the world, He will come to us and comfort the weeping one. When we struggle to the tired light, to be immersed in the ocean of his will and faith, we will reap ineffable benefits. What He gave us was a courage, a joy of struggle, a drunkenness of feeling with God... Beethoven's close friend Zinterer once said: "He grasped the spirit of nature." That's right: Beethoven is the bottom force of nature, a primitive force that, when it engages the rest of nature, produces Homer's epic spectacle.
His whole life was an unfortunate man, poor, crippled, lonely, man caused by pain, the world did not give him joy, but he created joy to give to the world!
Our automatic abandonment of the benefits we deserve from discovery is tantamount to giving up a great deal of wealth, but we do not consider this, but some friends kindly remind us: "If you had retained the rights and interests that should have belonged to you, you would have had enough money to create a well-equipped and well-equipped radium research institute, and it would not have been as difficult as it is now." This is true, but I still firmly believe that Pierre and my actions and decisions are completely correct. —Marie Curie
During the summer vacation of 1914, my two daughters, led by their governess, left Paris before me and stayed at the Brittany Seaside Holiday Home. But the bad news kept coming, and soon Germany declared war on France.
The 2016 biographical film Marie Curie tells the story of Marie Curie's experience from 1904 to 1911, immersed in experiments, the birth of a young child, the death of her husband - Marie Curie, who experienced the changes in her life, continued scientific research with tenacious will
The next historic event is known to all. Belgium was ravaged by the iron hooves of Germany. Immediately, the Germans entered the Uwaz Gorge and headed for Paris. Just in case, I managed to store the radium stored in my lab in a safe place. On the return to Paris, the Battle of the Marne had already begun. During this great campaign, I, like the inhabitants of Paris, rejoiced at victory at times, and at times felt that defeat was imminent and sad and depressed. My two daughters also resolutely returned to my side.
The country is in danger, and everyone should try to share the problems of their own country as much as possible. In accordance with my own expertise, I have also tried my best to contribute to the country. As we all know, X-rays are of great help to internal medicine and surgeons in examining the condition. Especially during the war, it can be used to examine and determine the exact part of the body where the shrapnel is embedded in the body, so that the doctor can take it out. It can also show cases of bone and internal organ damage, and during the war, the device saved the lives of countless wounded people, shortened their recovery time, and also made many people less painful and free from lifelong disability. But when the war started, all the medical departments in the army did not have X-ray therapy equipment and no technicians in this area.
I pooled all the X-ray equipment in the laboratories and storage rooms and set up several X-ray medical stations in August and September 1914, which were operated by volunteers I had trained. In the Battle of the Marne, these medical stations played a large role. Later, with the assistance of the Red Cross, I designed and equipped a mobile X-ray car, which was modified from an ordinary convertible, fixed a well-equipped X-ray equipment and a generator in the compartment, and used the car's engine to drive the generator to generate electricity to supply the electricity required for the X-ray equipment. The mobile car can go everywhere, and as long as any hospital needs it, the mobile car will arrive immediately. Especially for the wounded and sick in the emergency department, this mobile medical vehicle is more useful.
Stills from the movie Marie Curie
Whenever the doctor at the ambulance station asked me for help, I personally drove it to support. Most of the people at the warzone station don't use X-ray equipment, so I had to pick some suitable people to explain in detail. Driving to various ambulance stations, you will encounter various unexpected difficulties along the way. For example, find a safe place to park for the car, solve the problem of eating and living for the assistants, and sometimes find various spare parts for the car. Due to the shortage of manpower, I usually drive my own car. Although people are tired, they can quickly reach their destinations, and if they are handed over to the health department, they will inevitably delay the time.
What touched us the most was the perseverance of the wounded to endure the pain and not hum when we treated them. In the past few years, the terrible scenes I have seen have been enough to abhor war in any one case. This experience during the war enabled me to accumulate a wealth of knowledge and experience in this new technology of medical examination. I felt that I should share this knowledge with everyone, so I wrote a booklet, Radiology and War.
In the autumn of 1918, after the parties had worked hard to restore peace, an armistice was finally signed. However, with all the devastation caused by the war, people are still living in dire straits. The staff and students were demobilized after the war, and my laboratory work was gradually on track, but due to the country's financial difficulties, it was not easy to seek the ideal development. Luckily, in 1921, I received a tremendous amount of help. Mrs. W.B. Meyène launched a national women's donation in the United States to form the "Marie Curie Foundation", and they used the donated money to buy a gram of radium and gave it to me for scientific research. Mrs. Meyène also invited me and my two daughters to visit the United States to receive the gift and certificate in person, and invited the President of the United States to hand over the gift and certificate to me at the White House.
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That being said, economic problems continue to plague us in order to achieve the desired major goals. In the face of all these difficulties, I think of a fundamental question: what kind of attitude a scientist should adopt toward scientific discoveries.
Pierre and I have always refused to derive any material benefit from our scientific discoveries. Therefore, we unreservedly made the method of extracting radium immediately public. We didn't apply for a patent, and we didn't make any claims about the rights of entrepreneurs who used it for profit. It was precisely because we quickly and exhaustively published the complex and delicate refining methods of radium that the radium industry was able to develop rapidly. Our automatic abandonment of the benefits we deserve from discovery is tantamount to giving up a great deal of wealth, but we do not consider this, but some friends kindly remind us: "If you had retained the rights and interests that should have belonged to you, you would have had enough money to create a well-equipped and well-equipped radium research institute, and it would not have been as difficult as it is now." This is true, but I still firmly believe that Pierre and my actions and decisions are completely correct.
There is no doubt that human beings need people who pay attention to their own interests, who work hard and pursue their own interests, but also go hand in hand with the general interests of mankind. But after all, human beings are indispensable to people with idealistic beliefs, and I think a perfect society should provide the necessary guarantee for the research funds and personal lives of idealists, so that they can devote themselves to their scientific research without any concern.
Draw on their courage as nourishment!
If miracles are extraordinary, then they often manifest themselves in the conquest of adversity. Senegal also said a more profound maxim: "True greatness lies in the invincibility of divinity in the fragile mortal body." "Human virtue is like sandalwood, which emits the most intense fragrance only in the fierce flames. Bad qualities are often revealed unbridled, and good qualities often shine in the face of adversity.
—Bacon on adversity
A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.
Just as the old man walks to the sea every day, many people go to the battlefield of struggle with their limits every day, as if they are going to compete with fate. They are the strongest of men.
Life always makes us bruised, but later, those wounded places will become our strongest places.
Human beings themselves have their own limits, but when people repeatedly extend their hands beyond the limits, this limit expands day by day. Humanity grows in the struggle against limits. They sent the spacecraft into space, and they also used rudimentary fishing gear to catch huge marlins in the Caribbean. These things are equally great. People who do such incredible things are heroes. And those who never want or can't go beyond their limits are mediocre people.
Courage is the grace that unfolds under pressure.
- Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Abandonment without battle is hypocritical, detachment without hardship is frivolous, escapist wisdom is cowardly; moderation, modesty, wisdom and wisdom, are our mortal wounds: this is the conviction that I have been growing day by day for fifteen years. And all this is due to Beethoven's revelation.
—Fu Lei on Beethoven
Excerpted and compiled by Chen Xihan, a reporter of this newspaper, from "Biography of Beethoven" and "Autobiography of Marie Curie" and so on
Editor: Zhou Minxian