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。

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

世界上只有两种悲剧，一种是一个人没有得到他想要的，另一种是他得到了。

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。

It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.

美丽要比善良好，善良要比难看强。

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。

It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.

争论者损失的只是智力。

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。

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。

Like dear St Francis of Assisi I am wedded¹ to Poverty: but in my case the marriage is not a success.

就像亲爱的圣芳济一样，我也和贫穷联姻，但我的婚姻并不成功。

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。

Music makes one feel so romantic—at least it always gets on one's nerves, which is the same thing nowadays.

音乐让人感觉非常浪漫，至少让人感觉不安，如今两者是一回事。

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。

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。

Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.

请别开枪打死那个钢琴师，他已经尽力了。

Science is the record of dead religions.

科学是死去的宗教的记录。

Tell the cook of this restaurant with my compliments that these are the very worst sandwiches in the whole world, and that when I ask for a watercress sandwich I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it.

请转告我对这家饭店厨师的赞誉，这是全世界最糟糕的三明治了，还有，我点的是豆瓣菜三明治，我并不是要面包片中夹一块菜田。

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

乐观的基础完全是恐惧。

The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden…It ends with Revelations.

生命之书》始于一座花园里的一男一女……它最后以《启示录》告终。

The difference between journalism² 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。

The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future.

圣人和罪人的唯一区别是，每一个圣人都有过去，而每一个罪人都有未来。

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.

对于忠告，你所能做的，就是把它奉送给别人，忠告从来就不是给自己准备的。

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。

The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster.

演出相当成功，但观众则是一场灾难。

The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.

公众极其宽容，他们可以宽容一切，天才除外。