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英文拟管锥之三

1、The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money. 神圣的友情如此甜美、稳定、忠诚、持久,一定会持续终生,只要不提到借钱的话。“说到钱,便无缘”。

2、The Future — something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. 未来者,每个人以一小时60分钟的速度到达之处也,不管他是做什么的,也不管他是谁。时间对每个人是公平的,可是每个人利用时间是不一样的。

3、Death and dice level all distinction. 死亡和骰子一视同仁。尽管截然不同,却一样铁面无私。

4、To play billiards well was a sign of an ill-spent youth.— Herbert Spencer. 擅长台球,是青春虚度的标志。玩物丧志的意思,当然,他应该加一句,台球运动员不算。

5、Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that after it. — George Orwell. 每代人都觉得自己比前代人聪明,比后代人更聪明。虽然说得很大,只要想一下家庭中,父亲的态度,就可以看得分明了。

6、Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. 才能人皆有之,所缺的是依才能引领往未知之境的勇气。成功其实简单,只要勇气、毅力、恒心,人人都能够做到,但恰恰很多人都没有去做,因此成功者就少了。

7、I have so often seen how people come by the name of genius — in the same way, that is, as certain insects come by the name of millipede, not because they have that number of feet, but because most people won’t count up to fourteen. 我看多了那些以天才之名出现的人们了,就好比,那种叫做“百足虫”的昆虫。哪里是因为它们真有那么多脚,只不过很多人数到14就不耐烦了。另外有警句说,伟人之所以伟大,只不过因为我们跪着。

8、The manner of giving is worth more than the gift. 如何给予远胜于给予何物。因此,廉者不受嗟来之食。

9、Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience. 光荣往往是个戏剧化的概念,没有明确意识到观众的存在,就没有渴求光荣的努力。极而言之,这种观众不必现场目击,也可以是留之于后世的。

10、The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident. 我所知最大的幸福在于:不为人知行善举,不经意间被发现。因为不求于外,因而感到幸福。

11、It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way. 仅仅行善不够,行善还须得法。行善不得法,双方都尴尬,甚至坏了大事。

12、There is one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. — Oscar Wilde. 世上只有一件事情比作为谈资更坏的了,那就是压根没人提你。现代经济理论中说,发展中国家比被跨国资本剥削更惨的就是,不被剥削。

13、If the Government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have. 如果政府强大到能够给你所要的一切的话,它也就强大到能够剥夺你所有的一切。不光是政治学上谈政府,即便是男女之间的感情,也是一样。

14、If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. — Mark Twain. 如果你收留一只饿狗,让它发迹,它不会反过来咬你。这就是人和狗的区别。另有痛心的话说,the more I know man,the more I love dog。

15、There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great. 固然有伟人让每个人觉得渺小,然而真正的伟人却让每个人觉得自己伟大。借用林肯的话,前一种伟人只能伟大一时,后一种却能伟大一世。

16、The haste of a fool is the slowest thing in the world. 傻瓜瞎忙乎,办事最耽搁。瞎忙乎比袖手不做还糟糕,因为做坏了还要折回头再来。

17、Many might go to heaven with half the labor they go to hell. 只要花费去地狱一半的辛劳,很多人就能够上天堂了。很多时候投入巨大的精力所做的事情,如果用在正道上就能够取得很大的成绩。这就是地狱和天堂之分了。

18、The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. 真正的英雄总是误会所致,他其实想和旁人一样做一个诚实的懦夫。尽管有些绝对,但说出了一些真理。肯尼迪被问到怎么会成为战斗英雄的时候说,我才不愿意呢,可敌人打沉了我的船。

19、This thing of being a hero, about the main thing to do is to know when to die. Prolonged life has ruined more men than it ever made. 说起做英雄这回事最主要的是知道什么时候该死了。该死不死毁掉的英雄大大多于所造就的。所谓死得其时,留在世间的始终是最光辉的形象,否则,往往对比起来增加人们的不屑。

20、”Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”— George Orwell, 1984. “谁控制过去”,党的标语这样写着,“就控制未来:谁控制现在,就控制过去”。语近反讽,实在是最强烈的讽刺。控制现在,就可以任意改变过去,任意改变过去就可以任意书写未来,这的确是某种当权者的真实心态。

21、Men’s naures are alike; it is their habits that separate them. 性相近,习相远。孔夫子的名言如何英译,供研究。

22、To be happy one must have a good stomach and a bad heart. 要想快乐,得有一个好胃口和一副坏心肠。好胃口有好心情,坏心肠才能够置人世痛苦于不顾。

23、One is never as happy or as unhappy as one thinks. 你决不会如你所想得那么快乐,或者那么不快乐。对于自己的情感,也应该虚怀若谷,才可能摆脱自己太得意的情况,太失意的痛苦。

24、There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. 人生两大目标:首先,得所求;其次,享受之。只有最明智的人做到了第二条。为了某事孜孜以求,却不能津津有味品味之,人生中很多事情都有这样的尴尬。

25、Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. 我们生命中有一半的时间花在了想找点什么事情做做上了,而这些时间又是我们极力积攒下来的。人们在生命中有很多浪费,不然成就一定大得多。

26、Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love all year round, madam; that is all there is to distinguish us from other animals. The Marriage of Figaro. 夫人,我们和动物的所有区别仅在于:口不渴时却狂饮,全年间都能做爱。看来,饮食和做爱都是生而为人的奢侈品,动物不一样,动物对待食、色是处于“需要”,人类往往出于“伪需要”。

27、The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs. — Madame Jeanne-Marie Roland. 我越领略人,我越喜欢狗。冷峻的话,中肯的观点。

28、Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. — Oscar Wilde. 人是这样一种理性的动物:每当希望他依据理性律令行事时,却总是暴跳如雷。理性是一回事,做起来是令一回事。

29、If a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. — Martin Luther King.Jr. 没有发现值得一死之事的人,根本不配生存。正所谓人之畏有甚于死者,人之爱有甚于生者,正是超越生死的目标指引着伟大的人的行动。

30、An idealist is one who,on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup. — H.L.Mencken. 理想主义者是这样的人:因为玫瑰花闻起来比卷心菜香,就认为一定也能做成更好的汤。理想主义者总是对生活的歪曲,善意的歪曲。歪曲成功,理想实现;歪曲失败,心灰意懒。

31、If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle. — Samuel Johnson. 无聊时万勿独处,独处时不可无聊。 无聊而独处,愈增无聊;独处时无聊,愈增空虚。

32、Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal. 不成熟的艺术家模仿,成熟的艺术家偷窃。模仿者,痕迹宛然;偷窃者,不知所从。前者低级,后者高明。

33、Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. — Oscar Wilde. 多数人并非自己,他们的思想充斥别人的意见,他们的生活通篇都是模仿,他们的激情仅仅是引用而已。语虽尖刻,道理历然,最可笑的是多数人还不自知。

34、Someone has somewhere commented on the fact that millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. 某人在某处曾经陈述过这样的事实:无数的人渴望不朽,但却不知道在一个下雨的星期天下午该做些什么。别渴望不朽,先管住当下吧。

35、Where there’s Marriage without Love, there will be Love without Marriage. — Benjamin Franklin. 既有婚姻而无爱情,必有爱情而无姻缘。这个道理可以类推,比如把marriage换成sex等等。

36、The injuries we do and those we suffer are seldom weighed in the same scales. — Aesop, Fables. 余等于所为及所受之伤害,以同等尺度衡量者,几稀。切身苦痛,念兹在兹;及在他人,隔岸观火――这是一切以我为执的人的通病。句子中的伤害同样可以代换成成功、声名、荣誉、痛苦等等,(自己的成功衡量起来往往以一当十,别人的成功则以十当一)。

37、He who injured you was either stronger or weaker. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare yourself. — Seneca. 伤害你的人要么比你强要么比你弱。比你弱,宽恕他;比你强,宽恕你自己。不错的实践心理学教程,欺负弱者并非真正的强者;面对强者,不必过分自责。

38、Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile. 脸红已是有罪,真正的无邪根本不知羞耻为何物。羞耻感,如果仔细分析起来,已经包括了社会意识对个人观念的渗入,卢梭一贯倡导自然,想必是这个意思。我不知道卢梭对于吃了智慧果的夏娃会怎么看。

39、The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time. — W. B. Yeats. 时间是天真与美丽的大敌。时间改变一切,虽然改变天真和魅力,看起来为恶;然而也治愈一切苦痛,看起来亦善。

40、Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing. 聪明有益于一切事情,不足以成就任何事情。聪明当然是好的,但单有聪明是不够的;聪明而不足以成事,只能叫做小聪明,聪明而能够成事,才能叫做大智慧。

(文章来源:网络收集)

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