书城英文图书青春阅读——聆听人生真谛(双语)
47873000000018

第18章 智慧篇(5)

学会暂停的艺术,否则一切有价值的东西都会离你远走。

Troubles like babies, grow larger by nursing.

麻烦就像婴孩,豢养只能使它增大。

It is easy enough to be pleasant when life flows along a song, but the man worthwhile is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong.

当生活像一首流动、飘逸的歌,人很自然会高兴起来。但一个人的可贵之处在于身处逆境时依然微笑。

An authority is a person who can tell you more about something than you really care to know.

所谓权威,就是一个能告诉你一些比你想要知道的事情还要多的人。

You cant get anywhere today if you are still tied down in yesterday.

如果一味地沉湎于过去,你将一事无成。

To stand in the mist of darkness and behave as if all is light, that is victory.

站在黑暗的迷雾中,如同站在光明里一样,这就是胜利。

True science teaches,above all,to doubt and be ignorant.

真正的科学首先是教人怀疑并知道自己的无知。

It is mans duty to be courageous enough to seek for truth.

勇于探索真理是人的天职。

Humor and Wit

幽默与机智

Humour has been well defined as“thinking in fun while feeling in earnest”.

幽默被人巧妙地解释为“表感受以诚挚,寓深思于嬉笑”。

May the best of this year be the worst of next.

但愿明年最坏的事也和今年最好的事那么好。

Inflation is being broke with a lot of money in your pocket.

通货膨胀即是囊中多钞而没有钱花。

Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you have got.

影响力犹如储蓄存款,用得愈少,积得愈多。

The only function of economic forecast is to make astrology look respectable.

经济预测的唯一作用,是使占星术看来还算不错。

Theres only one kind of tax that would please everybody—one that nobody but the other guy has to pay.

只有一种税人人欢迎,那就是除了别人以外谁也不必缴纳的税。

For a man to become a poet he must be in love, or miserable.

一个人要恋爱或潦倒才可成为诗人。

Two things only a man cannot hide: that he is drunk and that he is in love.

人不能隐藏的只有两件事:酒醉和恋爱。

When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think its only a minute. But when you sit it on a lot stove for a minute you think its two hours. Thats relativity.

你和一位可爱的女郎坐在一起,两小时就像一分钟;你坐在炽热的火炉旁, 一分钟就像二小时。这就是相对论。

Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to.

人类是唯一会脸红的动物,也是唯一该脸红的动物。

It takes two to speak truth—one to speak and another to hear.

说真话要有两个人——一个说,一个听。

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

人人都把自己的错误美其名为经验。

Marriage is a covered dish.

婚姻是一道盖着的菜。

A gossips mouth is the devils mailbag.

饶舌者的嘴巴是魔鬼的邮袋。

Many talk like philosophers and live like fools.

好多人讲起话来像哲学家,过起日子来像傻瓜。

A lion at home, a mouse abroad.

在家像狮子,出外成老鼠。

If there is not rocks in its bed, the stream will have no song.

溪床如果无石,溪流就不会唱歌。

The turtle lays thousands of eggs without anyone knowing, but when the hen lays an egg, the whole country is informed. 海龟下几千只蛋都不动声色,母鸡下一只蛋就四邻皆闻。

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.

声音不能证明什么。母鸡产下一只蛋,往往大声啼叫,好像产生小行星似的。

Dont expect anything original from an echo.

不要期望从回声中找到新东西。

Taking joy in living is a womans best cosmetic.

享受人生乐趣是女人最好的化妆品。

Who of us is mature enough for offspring before the offspring themselves arrive? The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.

我们之间,有谁在生育儿女之前已成熟到可为人父母?结婚的好处并不在于成人可生养孩子,而在于孩子可助长成人。

If children grew up according to early inclination, we should have nothing but geniuses.

儿童如依其早期倾向成长,则个个都会成为天才。

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

每个孩子都是艺术家。问题在一旦长大后如何仍不失为艺术家。

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

我们为什么听到有人诞生就欢喜,看到有人出殡就悲伤呢?因为诞生和死亡的都是别人。

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

宇宙不必和人类的雄心壮志完全协调一致。

There is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

崇高与荒谬仅差毫厘。

Ideals are like the stars. We never reach them but, like the mariners on the sea, we chart our course by them.

思想犹如星宿。我们虽不能触及,但一如航海者,可借其指引航向。

There is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

错误莫过于总是自信正确。

There are no faults in a thing we want badly.

我们非常想要的东西是没有缺点的。

The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting.

大多数人唯一比别人做得好的事,是认自己写的字。