I was working on the proof of one of my poems all morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
我整个早上都在校对自己的一首诗,我去掉了一个逗号。下午我又把它加上去了。
No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.
没有女人应该对她的年龄十分准确。这显得有些精于算计。
Don’t give a woman advice; one should never give a woman anything she can’t wear in the evening.
不要给女人忠告;决不要给女人任何她晚上不能穿戴的东西。
It is absurd to pide people in to good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.-Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892, Act I
把人分成好的与坏的是荒谬的,人要么迷人,要么乏味。-《温夫人的扇子》
When a love comes to an end, weaklings cry, efficient ones instantly find another love and wise already had one in reserve.
当爱情走到尽头,软弱者哭个不停,有效率的马上去寻找下一个目标,而聪明的早就预备了下一个。
Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
死亡和庸俗是十九世纪仅有的无法用巧辩逃避的东西。
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
教育是一件可敬的事,但要时刻牢记,没有什么值得知道的事是教得会的。
I am not young enough to know everything.
我还没有年轻到什么都懂的地步。
It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.
所有人类的重大问题都有一个共同点:没有点幽默和疯狂是没办法解决的。
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
一个愤世嫉俗的人知道所有东西的价格,不知道任何东西的价值。
2
自传体是批评的最高形式,也是最低形式。
Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. Our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.-Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
大多数男人和女人被强迫扮演他们没有能力扮演的角色。我们的吉尔登斯吞为我们演哈姆雷特,而我们的哈姆雷特必须像霍尔王子一样来说笑。这个世界是个舞台,但角色被分配得很糟糕。–《亚瑟·萨维尔勋爵的罪行》
I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.
我敬佩简单的快乐,那是复杂的最后避难所。
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
宗教一旦被证明是正确时就会消亡。科学便是已消亡宗教的记录。
Dammit sir, it’s your duty to get married. You can’t be always living for pleasure.
该死,先生,结婚是你的职责,你不能总是逍遥快活。
We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.
我们教给人们如何记忆,却从来不教他们如何成长。
Everyone is born king, and most people die in exile.
每个人生来都是君王,但大多数在流亡中死去。
The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
教养良好的人处处和他人过不去,头脑聪明的人处处和自己过不去。
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation.
摆脱诱惑的唯一方式是臣服于诱惑……我能抗拒一切,除了诱惑。
The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional.
情感的好处就是让我们引入歧途,而科学的好处是不感情用事。
3
“如果你以为已经理解我的意思了,那么你已经误解了我的意思。”
Ignorance is like a delicate flower: touch it and the bloom is gone.
无知就像是一朵精致的花朵:摸一下,它就消失了。
“第一:我永远是对的;第二:如果我错了,请参见第一条。”
青春微笑无须原因,这是它最主要的魅力。
艺术的宗旨是展示艺术本身,同时把艺术家隐藏起来。
犯罪分子离我们如此地近,就连警察都能够发现他们,他们离我们又如此遥远,只有诗人能够理解他们。
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only inpiduals.
社会仅仅以一种精神概念而存在,真实世界中只有个体存在。
It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.
争论者损失的只是智力。
A good name,like good will ,is got by many action and lost by one.
一个好的名声,就像好的意向一样,在很多个举动的形成,在一个举动中失去。
Hatred is blind, as well as love.
恨是盲目的,爱亦然。
4
The very essence of romance is uncertainty.
浪漫的精髓就在于它充满种种可能。
生活中不正常的事物与艺术的关系是正常的,而且是生活中与艺术保持正常关系的唯一事物。
起初是我们造成习惯,后来是习惯造成我们。
The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
世上只有一件事比被人议论更糟糕,那就是没有人议论你。
Don’t be afraid of the past. If people tell you that it is irrevocable, don’t believe them.
不要惧怕过去。如果人们告诉你说过去的事情无可挽回,别相信他们。
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing
一个愤世嫉俗的人知道所有东西的价格,却不知道任何东西的价值。
Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.
声望是我从未经受的侮辱之一。
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
我喜欢人甚于原则,此外我还喜欢没原则的人甚于世界上的一切。
Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.
女人代表着物质战胜了理智,正如男人代表着理智战胜了道德。
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
乐观的基础完全是恐惧。
5
My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has to go.
我和我的墙纸即将展开生死决斗,所以我们中的一个必须得走。
I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.
我给你们讲述的是所有你们没勇气去犯的罪孽。
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
男女之间不可能存在友谊,有的只是爱恨情仇。
When a woman marries again,it is because she detested her first husband.When a man marries again,it is because he adored his first wife.
女人再嫁是因为憎恶前夫,男人再娶是因为太爱前妻。
When the gods wish to punish us ,they answer our prayers.
当神想惩罚我们的时候,他们实现我们的祈祷。
Women have a much better time than men in this world. There are far more things forbidden to them.
女人在世上的日子要比男人好过得多。她们有太多禁忌。
There is only one real tragedy in a woman’s life. The fact that her past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband.
女人的生活中只有一个真正的悲剧:她总在缅怀过去,却必须活在未来。
I love acting. It is so much more real than life.
我喜欢演戏。与人生相比,演戏更真实。
The public is wonderfully to lerant .It forgive everything except genius.
公众是惊人的宽容,可以原谅一切除了天才。
Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genuis by the mediocrities.
奚落是庸才对天才的颂歌。
6
No man is rich enough to buy back his own past.
没有人富有到可以赎回自己的过去。
Popurlarity is the one in sult I have never suffered.
声望是我从未经受的侮辱之一。
If a woman can’t make her mistakes charming, she is only a female.-Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
如果一个女人不能让她犯的错误变得迷人,她就只是一个雌性动物。-《亚瑟·萨维尔勋爵的罪行》
I have made an important discovery…that alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, produces all the effects of intoxication.
我有一个重大发现——如果摄入足量酒精,就会产生各种陶醉的效果。
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.
所有糟糕的诗歌都源于真情实感。自然化的作品其内涵是显而易见的,而显而易见的内涵并不艺术。
Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography
现在每个伟人都有自己的信徒,而他们的传记总由叛徒来写。
恋爱总是以自欺开始,以欺人结束。
The evolution of man is slow. The injustice to man is great.
人类的进化很缓慢。他们遭受的不公待遇显而易见。
It is very easy to endure the difficulties of one’s enemies. It is the successes of one’s friends that are hard to bear.
来自敌人的困难可以忍,来自朋友的成功则无可忍。
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
爱自己是终身浪漫的开始。
7
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
梦想家只能在月光下找到前进的方向,他为此遭受的惩罚是比所有人提前看到曙光。
All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction
我想所有迷人的人都是被溺爱的,这是他们吸引力来源的秘密。
Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.
邪恶是好人发明出来说明那些奇异而有魅力的人的神话。
What is the chief cause of porce? Marriage.
什么是离婚的主要原因?结婚。
The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.
情感的好处就是让我们误入歧途。
A true friend stabs you in the front.
真朋友才会当面中伤你。
Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.
结婚是想象战胜了理智,再婚是希望战胜了经验。
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
真相很少纯粹,也从不简单。
Men become old, but they never become good.
人们越长越老,但绝不会越变越好。
Time is a waste of money.
时间是一种对金钱的浪费。
8
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
摆脱诱惑的唯一方法是屈服于它。
One can always be kind to people one cares nothing about.
一个人总是可以善待他毫不在意的人。
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
除了感官,什么也不能治灵魂的创痛,同样,感官的饥渴也只有灵魂解除得了。
“我的缺点就是我没有缺点。”
Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.
永远宽恕你的敌人,没有什么能比这个更让他们恼怒的了。
Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success.-The Soul of Man under Socialism (1881)
任何人都能对朋友的不幸感到同情,但要消受一个春风得意的朋友,则需要非常优良的天性。-《社会主义下人的灵魂》
Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.
没有比冷静更让人恼火的。
When one is in love, one always begins by deceiveing one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what would calls a romance.
爱,始于自我欺骗,终于欺骗他人。这就是所谓的浪漫。
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I’m saying.
我简直太聪明了,有时连我自己都不知道自己在说什么。
Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
平常的财宝会被偷走,而真正的财富则不会。你灵魂里无限珍贵的东西是无法被夺走的。
9
Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot.
年轻人想有信仰,但他们却没有;老年人不想有信仰,但却办不到。
The difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
报纸和文学的区别是,报纸没法读,而文学则没人读。
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.
这是一件很悲哀的事——如今几乎没有无用的信息。
One should never trust a woman who tells her real age. If she tells that, she’ll tell anything.
一个人决不应该相信说出自己真实年龄的女人。如果她把这都说出来了,那她什么都会说。
The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer.
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.
女人如何能期望会从男人那里获得幸福,如果他坚持把她当作一个完全正常的人。
艺术是世界上唯一严肃的事物,而艺术家则是唯一永远不严肃的人。
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
人是理性动物,但当他被要求按照理性的要求行动时,可又要发脾气了。
显而易见的事物是艺术家无法看到的唯一事物,显而易见的事物是大众能够看到的唯一事物,结果出现了记者的评论。
A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
一个人在选择他的敌人时,再小心也不为过。
10
When good Americans die they go to Paris. When bad Americans die they go to America.
当美国的好人死了,他们就去巴黎。当美国的坏蛋死了,他们就去美国。
Every great man nowadays has his disciples,and it is always Judas who write the biography.
每个伟人现今都有信徒,而传记总由叛徒来写。
Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
要避免争论,争论总是俗不可耐,而且常常令人信服。
Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious; both are disappointed.
男人因疲倦而结婚,女人因好奇而结婚;最终他们都会失望。
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
所有女人都会变得像她们的母亲一样,这是女人的悲剧。但没有男人变得像他们的父亲,这是男人的悲剧。
I don’t want to earn my living; I want to live.
我不想谋生;我想生活。
Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other.
人生就是一件蠢事追着另一件蠢事而来,而爱情则是两个蠢东西追来追去。
A good name, like good will, is got by many action and lost by one.
一个好的名声,就像好的意向一样,在很多个举动的形成,在一个举动中失去。
It is absurd to pide people in to good and bad .People are either charming or tedious.
把人分成好的与坏的是荒谬的,人要么是迷人,或者乏味。
那些自称了解自己的人,都是肤浅的人。(只有肤浅的人了解自己)