While walking down the beach, a man saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.

As he came closer, he saw thousands of starfish the tide had thrown onto the beach. Unable to return to the ocean during low tide, the starfish were dying. He observed a young boy picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean.

After watching the seemingly futile effort, the observer said, “There must be thousands of starfish on this beach. It would be impossible for you to save all of them. There are simply too many. You can’t possibly save enough to make a difference.”

The young boy smiled as he picked up another starfish and toss it back into the ocean. “It made difference to that one.”

　　一人沿海滩悠然漫步，发现远处有人不时弯腰捡起什么东西，然后扔进海里。

他走近一看，数千只海星被潮水冲上了海滩。海星由于在退潮后回不到海里，面临死亡的厄运。他见一个小男孩正将海星逐一拾起，然后扔回到大海里。

目睹小男孩似乎徒劳的努力，旁观者发话了：“海滩上的海星一定接近上万。你不可能解救全部。太多了，你救不了多少，救那么几只也无济于事。”

小男孩一边拾起另一只海星抛向大海，一边微笑着回答：“但至少可以改变这只海星的命运。”