老布什总统离世！他曾说：历史是一本书，愿我们成为那特别的注脚（附视频&演讲稿）
点击上方“精彩英语演讲”，选择“设为星标”
英语演讲视频，第一时间观看
据美国多家媒体报道，美国第51届第41任总统乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什（George Herbert Walker Bush）于美国时间11月30日晚逝世，享年94岁。作为最长寿的美国总统，在生命最后的几年日子里，老布什曾经几度路过鬼门关。由于患有某种帕金森病，老布什需要依赖轮椅出行，屡次传出病危消息。
这位耶鲁大学1948届本科校友经商、参军、从政，一生可谓波澜壮阔，尤为值得一提的是，在其活跃于政坛期间，为中美关系的发展做出了突出贡献。
当晚，乔治·W·布什（小布什）对父亲的去世发表声明：“乔治·H·W·布什是一位品格高尚的男人，也是儿子或女儿眼中最好的父亲。整个布什家族对他所付出的一生和爱，对那些关心和为之祈祷的人们，也对我们的朋友和同胞的哀悼，深表感谢。”
美国现任总统特朗普也发文悼念老布什：“梅拉尼娅和我与整个悲伤的国家一起，哀悼于昨晚去世的前总统乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什。他鼓舞了几代美国同胞投入到公共服务中，在全世界面前点亮了美国的伟大、希望和机遇。”
据粗略统计，布什家族现在活跃在政坛上的人物超过25位之多。如果说布什家族最风云的一位，非布什家族第三代传人乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什莫属。他一直是布什家族的核心人物。
今天英语演讲想通过几个老布什人生的高光时刻来缅怀这位美国总统。
由于你懂得原因，视频上传无法通过
点击下方小程序，立即观看
由于美国历史上存在过两位布什总统，因此又常被称为老布什，以便与其同样担任过美国总统的长子乔治·沃克·布什作区别。老布什十分重视消除美国社会弊病，化解美国白宫与国会之间的分歧，并将解决联邦预算赤字问题作为当务之急。他的1989年就职演说带着诗意，其中提到“我把历史看作是一本书，每一页都记录了心想事成的一天。微风吹过，翻开了新的一页，新的故事开始了。
回顾老布什一生的经典瞬间本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President Quayle, Senator Mitchell, Speaker Wright, Senator Dole, Congressman Michel, and fellow citizens, neighbors, and friends:
There is a man here who has earned a lasting place in our hearts and in our history. President Reagan, on behalf of our nation, I thank you for the wonderful things that you have done for America.
I've just repeated word for word the oath taken by George Washington 200 years ago, and the Bible on which I placed my hand is the Bible on which he placed his. It is right that the memory of Washington be with us today not only because this is our bicentennial inauguration but because Washington remains the Father of our Country. And he would, I think, be gladdened by this day; for today is the concrete expression of a stunning fact: our continuity, these 200 years, since our government began.
We meet on democracy's front porch. A good place to talk as neighbors and as friends. For this is a day when our nation is made whole, when our differences, for a moment, are suspended. And my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads.
Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: "Use power to help people." For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us remember, Lord. Amen.
Great nations of the world are moving toward democracy through the door to freedom. Men and women of the world move toward free markets through the door to prosperity. The people of the world agitate for free expression and free thought through the door to the moral and intellectual satisfactions that only liberty allows.本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
We know what works: Freedom works. We know what's right: Freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life for man on Earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections, and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state.
For the first time in this century, for the first time in perhaps all history, man does not have to invent a system by which to live. We don't have to talk late into the night about which form of government is better. We don't have to wrest justice from the kings. We only have to summon it from within ourselves. We must act on what we know. I take as my guide the hope of a saint: In crucial things, unity; in important things, diversity; in all things, generosity.
America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place we cannot help but love. We know in our hearts, not loudly and proudly but as a simple fact, that this country has meaning beyond what we see, and that our strength is a force for good. But have we changed as a nation even in our time? Are we enthralled with material things, less appreciative of the nobility of work and sacrifice?
My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are not the measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend; a loving parent; a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood, and town better than he found it. And what do we want the men and women who work with us to say when we're no longer there? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better and stayed a moment there to trade a word of friendship?本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
No President, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a difference; if he can celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made not of gold and silk but of better hearts and finer souls; if he can do these things, then he must.
America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the Nation and gentler the face of the world. My friends, we have work to do. There are the homeless, lost and roaming. There are the children who have nothing, no love and no normalcy. There are those who cannot free themselves of enslavement to whatever addiction -- drugs, welfare, the demoralization that rules the slums. There is crime to be conquered, the rough crime of the streets. There are young women to be helped who are about to become mothers of children they can't care for and might not love. They need our care, our guidance, and our education, though we bless them for choosing life.
The old solution, the old way, was to think that public money alone could end these problems. But we have learned that that is not so. And in any case, our funds are low. We have a deficit to bring down. We have more will than wallet, but will is what we need. We will make the hard choices, looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it differently, making our decisions based on honest need and prudent safety. And then we will do the wisest thing of all. We will turn to the only resource we have that in times of need always grows: the goodness and the courage of the American people.
And I am speaking of a new engagement in the lives of others, a new activism, hands-on and involved, that gets the job done. We must bring in the generations, harnessing the unused talent of the elderly and the unfocused energy of the young. For not only leadership is passed from generation to generation but so is stewardship. And the generation born after the Second World War has come of age.
I have spoken of a Thousand Points of Light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I'll ask every member of my government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because they're not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.
We need a new engagement, too, between the Executive and the Congress. The challenges before us will be thrashed out with the House and the Senate. And we must bring the Federal budget into balance. And we must ensure that America stands before the world united, strong, at peace, and fiscally sound. But of course things may be difficult. We need to compromise; we've had dissension. We need harmony; we've had a chorus of discordant voices.本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
For Congress, too, has changed in our time. There has grown a certain divisiveness. We have seen the hard looks and heard the statements in which not each other's ideas are challenged but each other's motives. And our great parties have too often been far apart and untrusting of each other. It's been this way since Vietnam. That war cleaves us still. But, friends, that war began in earnest a quarter of a century ago, and surely the statute of limitation has been reached. This is a fact: The final lesson of Vietnam is that no great nation can long afford to be sundered by a memory. A new breeze is blowing, and the old bipartisanship must be made new again.
To my friends, and, yes, I do mean friends -- in the loyal opposition and, yes, I mean loyal -- I put out my hand. I am putting out my hand to you, Mr. Speaker. I am putting out my hand to you, Mr. Majority Leader. For this is the thing: This is the age of the offered hand. And we can't turn back clocks, and I don't want to. But when our fathers were young, Mr. Speaker, our differences ended at the water's edge. And we don't wish to turn back time, but when our mothers were young, Mr. Majority Leader, the Congress and the Executive were capable of working together to produce a budget on which this nation could live. Let us negotiate soon and hard. But in the end, let us produce. The American people await action. They didn't send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above the merely partisan. "In crucial things, unity" -- and this, my friends, is crucial.
To the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed vow: We will stay strong to protect the peace. The offered hand is a reluctant fist; once made -- strong, and can be used with great effect. There are today Americans who are held against their will in foreign lands and Americans who are unaccounted for. Assistance can be shown here and will be long remembered. Good will begets good will. Good faith can be a spiral that endlessly moves on.
Great nations like great men must keep their word. When America says something, America means it, whether a treaty or an agreement or a vow made on marble steps. We will always try to speak clearly, for candor is a compliment; but subtlety, too, is good and has its place. While keeping our alliances and friendships around the world strong, ever strong, we will continue the new closeness with the Soviet Union, consistent both with our security and with progress. One might say that our new relationship in part reflects the triumph of hope and strength over experience. But hope is good, and so is strength and vigilance.
Here today are tens of thousands of our citizens who feel the understandable satisfaction of those who have taken part in democracy and seen their hopes fulfilled. But my thoughts have been turning the past few days to those who would be watching at home, to an older fellow who will throw a salute by himself when the flag goes by and the woman who will tell her sons the words of the battle hymns. I don't mean this to be sentimental. I mean that on days like this we remember that we are all part of a continuum, inescapably connected by the ties that bind.本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
Our children are watching in schools throughout our great land. And to them I say, Thank you for watching democracy's big day. For democracy belongs to us all, and freedom is like a beautiful kite that can go higher and higher with the breeze. And to all I say, No matter what your circumstances or where you are, you are part of this day, you are part of the life of our great nation.
A President is neither prince nor pope, and I don't seek a window on men's souls. In fact, I yearn for a greater tolerance, and easygoingness about each other's attitudes and way of life.
There are few clear areas in which we as a society must rise up united and express our intolerance. The most obvious now is drugs. And when that first cocaine was smuggled in on a ship, it may as well have been a deadly bacteria, so much has it hurt the body, the soul of our country. And there is much to be done and to be said, but take my word for it: This scourge will stop!
And so, there is much to do. And tomorrow the work begins. And I do not mistrust the future. I do not fear what is ahead. For our problems are large, but our heart is larger. Our challenges are great, but our will is greater. And if our flaws are endless, God's love is truly boundless.
Some see leadership as high drama and the sound of trumpets calling, and sometimes it is that. But I see history as a book with many pages, and each day we fill a page with acts of hopefulness and meaning. The new breeze blows, a page turns, the story unfolds. And so, today a chapter begins, a small and stately story of unity, diversity, and generosity -- shared, and written, together.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什（下称老布什），1924年6月12日生于马萨诸塞州的密尔顿。老布什出生时，他的祖父母已经开始了财富积累。他的父亲与华尔街金融大亨是莫逆之交，将家族的企业版图从传统制造业拓展到金融业。老布什继承了父亲的头脑和智慧，在中学时期就展现了优秀的学术能力。
中学时，老布什就读于全美最好的高中——菲利普斯学院。毕业典礼正赶上太平洋战争爆发不久，战争部长亨利·刘易斯·史汀生来到这所顶尖名校为学生颁发毕业证书并发表演讲。他说，虽然这是一场需要巨大人力资源的长期战争，但希望各位接受更多教育后再参军也不迟。史汀生的演讲促使布什下决心参军。他在18岁生日那天来到波士顿加入太平洋舰队，随后转去北卡罗来纳州参加飞行预备训练。当时，他几乎是海军中最年轻的飞行员。
当时年20岁的布什和另外8人驾机前往东京以南700英里处的岛屿上空执行轰炸任务时，不幸被日军击落。他们9人成功逃离飞机。但其余8名飞行员游上岸后皆被日军俘虏后杀害，只有老布什一人在海上被美军救下得以生还。战后，老布什也因其在战争中的英勇表现被授予飞行十字勋章。
退伍后，老布什进入耶鲁大学攻读经济学。在校期间，老布什学习成绩优异，也广交朋友。当1948年从耶鲁大学毕业时，他获得了多个在东部的工作机会。但是老布什继承了父亲的眼光和远见，放弃了在新英格兰优越的生活，带着妻儿来到新崛起的石油大州得克萨斯州创业打拼。
1951年，老布什创办了自己的石油公司。1966年，他当选国会议员，之后他曾被尼克松总统任命为美国驻联合国大使，被福特总统任命为美国驻北京联络处主任，中央情报局局长。
1988年，在里根的强力支持下，布什在大选中获胜，成功当选美国第51届第41任总统。
在历任美国总统里，老布什绝对称得上是一名运动健将。在耶鲁棒球队里他是一名左撇子一垒手，曾带领耶鲁大学两次参加世界职业棒球大学联赛。
上下滑动，查看英文演讲稿
Thank you all very much. I've just received a telephone call from Governor Dukakis, and I want you to know, he was most gracious. His call was personal. It was genuinely friendly, and it was in the great tradition of American politics.
We can now speak the most majestic words a democracy has to offer: the people have spoken. And with a full heart and with great hopes, I thank all the people throughout America who have given us this great victory. And I thank Ronald Reagan. I thank him for turning our country around and for being my friend, and for going the extra mile on the hustings. It was just like him. He is simply one of the most decent men I have ever met. Quayle's 'Strength Under Fire'
I want to thank my friend, my running mate, Dan Quayle, and his family. And they have shown great strength under fire - campaigned incessantly. . . .本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
I want to thank my great friend, Houston's son, Jim Baker, and our campaign chairman, Lee Atwater, and the men and women of the campaign. . . .
And I especially thank the young people, who were always up at night, putting up the signs. And the people at those telephone banks and the ones who canvassed door to door. . . .
And I want to talk about my family. The fact is I'd be nothing without them. Our four sons, our daughter, Doro, and my own Barbara Bush - I guess I shouldn't say she's my own anymore, for soon she'll be the First Lady of all the United States. And I thank God for the faith He's given me, and as I grow older I'm more aware of the spiritual element in life and I ask for God's help. Never Losing Faith
I thank the men and women of Texas. There are people right here, I recognize them, started out with me in politics in 1962 and you never lost faith, you never left me, and you're a source of my strength.
This is a moving night for all of us, and you can't help but be moved when your country endorses your hopes and your candidacy and the feelings are so personal. But the decision is larger than that, and now we will move again for an America that is strong and resolute in the world, strong and big-hearted at home. . . . When I said I want a kinder, gentler nation, I meant it and I mean it.本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
A campaign is a disagreement, and disagreements divide, but an election is a decision, and decisions clear the way for harmony and peace. I mean to be a President of all the people, and I want to work for the hopes and interests not only of my supporters, but of the Governors and of those who didn't vote at all. To those who supported me, I will try to be worthy of your trust, and to those who did not, I will try to earn it, and my hand is out to you and I want to be your President, too.
I think I know how Governor Dukakis feels. I lost a few along the way myself and it hurts. We fought long and hard, and the Governor can take great satisfaction in the fact that his valiant family - Kitty and Kara and Andrea and John - did him proud. Reaching Out to Congress
Now I know that we'll come together as we always have: 200 years of harmony in the oldest, greatest democracy in man's time on earth. . . . I've traveled many miles, reached for many hands, and it's occurred to me that what we were having, the people of America and I, was a conversation, a back and forth . . . it cannot go away, not now, not when I need it most. So I mean to keep the conversation going, to keep walking towards you, talking with you and reaching for the hands.本文由精彩英语演讲整理，转载请注明出处，否则一律举报。
Another thing: I'll do my level best to reach out and work constructively with the United States Congress. And a final word about what you mean to me, my friends in this room. Every time Barbara and I come to Texas, it's a homecoming. We were young here, started out here 40 years ago, the summer of '48, worked in the oilfields, started a business and went into politics. Forty years of work and caring and friendship, and now I'm going to take that love and friendship . . . put it in my pocket, take it with me to Washington, D.C., where it's sometimes cold, but always bracing and where God knows there's lots of work to do.
So thank you. God bless you. And one other thing. Once in days that were a little darker I made a promise, and now I'll keep it. Thank you New Hampshire. Thanks for everything and God bless America. . . .
在白宫的四年里，老布什一直将他在1948年担任队长的那副旧的耶鲁棒球手套放在总统办公室的办公桌抽屉里。当被问及在耶鲁打棒球的经历教给了他什么时，老布什说：“团队合作以及一起努力实现一个共同目标的重要性。”
老布什心中还有一颗飞翔的心。人生中第一次跳伞是在他被战机击落的时刻。此后，他不定期跳伞庆祝自己的生日，75岁、80岁、85、90岁生日时都参加过跳伞。
90岁的老布什在2014年6月12日从直升机上一跃而下，高度2000米。当然，他已经不能独自完成跳伞运动，全程需要由陆军“黄金骑士”跳伞队的一名队员贴身协助，两人绑在一起，共用一个降落伞。落地时，布什无力抬高已瘫痪的双腿，重重摔在教堂前的草坪上，幸而无恙。
值得一提的是，老布什和中国的关系渊源深厚。在担任美国驻北京联络处主任期间，他为发展中美关系作出努力，由于喜欢在北京城中骑车还被称为“骑自行车的大使”。
除了爱骑自行车之外，老布什和妻子也非常喜欢吃中国菜，最受老布什喜爱的当然是老北京特产——北京烤鸭。老布什被调回美国后，他一直都喜欢去弗吉利亚的北京饭店吃烤鸭。他说他最喜欢的几道菜有北京烤鸭、椒盐大虾、北京风味羊排、干煸牛肉丝、干烧四季豆等。他的这个爱好也带动了整个布什家族，老布什和小布什总是一起拖家带口来到北京饭店吃这些菜。
老布什在一生之中多次访华。2009年，美国休斯敦地区华侨华人把当年的“杰出中国之友奖”授予给老布什夫妇。
今年6月，当老布什迎来94岁生日时，他也打破了由自己保持的纪录，成为美国历史上首位94岁高龄的前总统。
芭芭拉、乔治·布什在天安门前
老布什与妻子、美国前第一夫人芭芭拉·布什相濡以沫的爱情故事一直为外界称颂。芭芭拉·布什曾说，唯有死亡能打败她与老布什的婚姻。
今年4月，芭芭拉·布什去世。在布什夫人的葬礼上，她的儿子、弗罗里达州前州长杰布⋅布什在悼词中分享了一段父母的爱情故事：
我们一家还有最美妙的爱情故事。在无数次的搬家中，我们从纽黑文搬到敖德萨、到贝克斯菲尔德、到康普顿、到华盛顿、到纽约、到北京、再到华盛顿、到休斯顿再回到肯尼邦克港。但在我们的生活里，他们的爱从未间断。
我父亲是一个写信的高手，他会在他们结婚纪念日的时候给母亲写信，他们的婚姻持续了73年。1984年1月6日的时候他写道：
你愿意嫁给我吗，哦，我忘了，我们49年前就结过婚了。1945年的那一天我非常开心，我今天更开心，你给我带来的幸福是很多人体会不到的。你对我们的儿子严格教育并把他们培养成男子汉。我可能爬到了世界的顶端，但依然觉得自己配不上你。我妈妈总是跟我说，乔治，不要总向前赶。但她不知道的是，我只是想跟上你的步伐而已。
我爱你！
美妙的爱情令人艳羡，珍惜眼前人，愿老布什一路走好，与芭芭拉夫人共续前缘。
When you are old 当你老了
William Butler Yeats
威廉·巴特勒·叶芝
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
当你老了，头发花白，睡意沉沉，
And nodding by the fire，take down this book,
倦坐在炉边，取下这本书来，
And slowly read,and dream of the soft look
慢慢读着，追梦当年的眼神
Your eyes had once,and of their shadows deep;
你那柔美的神采与深幽的晕影。
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
多少人爱过你昙花一现的身影，
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
爱过你的美貌，以虚伪或真情，
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you
惟独一人曾爱你那朝圣者的心，
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
爱你哀戚的脸上岁月的留痕。
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
在炉罩边低眉弯腰，
Murmur,a little sadly,how Love fled
忧戚沉思，喃喃而语，
And paced upon the mountains overhead
爱情是怎样逝去，又怎样步上群山，
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
怎样在繁星之间藏住了脸。
防止未来失联
请长按识别二维码关注备用号
想第一时间接收英语演讲文章&视频？把精彩英语演讲设置为星标就对了！操作办法就是：进入公众号——点击右上角的●●●——找到“设为星标”点击即可。