Looking good and dressing¹ well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.

注意穿着打扮是必要的。而拥有生活目标却并非如此。

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。

Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes, they forgive them

孩子最初爱他们父母，等大一些他们评判父母；然后有些时候，他们原谅父母。

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

生活中只有两种悲剧:一个是没有得到我们想要的，另外一个是得到我们想要的。

——世上只有两类悲剧，有些人总是不能遂愿，而有些人总是心想事成。

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.

绅士就是从不无心伤害别人感觉的人。

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative

谈论天气是无趣人类最后的避难所。

One's real life is often the life that one does not lead.

真实生活就通常就是我们无法掌控的生活。

Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others

邪恶是善良的人们编造的谎言，用来解释其他人的特殊魅力。

Every great man nowadays has his disciples², 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。

The world has been made by fools that wise men should live in it.

愚人创造了这个世界，智者不得不活在其中。

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。

The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married.

已婚者的快乐来自那些他没有娶的人。

Twenty years of romance make a woman look like a ruin; but twenty years of marriage make her look like a public building.

20年的韵事使女人变成一片废墟，20年的婚姻使女人变成一座公共建筑。

When a woman marries again,it is because she detested³ her first husband.When a man marries again,it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.

女人再嫁是因为憎恶前夫，男人再娶是因为太爱前妻。

——女人再嫁是因为讨厌原来的丈夫，男人再娶是因为太爱原来的妻子。在寻找配偶时，女人习惯碰运气，而男人则会冒险。

Men become old, but they never become good.

人们越长越老，但绝不会越变越好。

The evolution of man is slow. The injustice⁴ 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。

Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.

对富有的单身汉应该客以重税。让某些人比其他人更快乐是不公平的。

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。

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

每个圣人都有过去，每个罪人都有未来。

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

生活是世上最罕见的事情，大多数人只是存在，仅此而已。

I have nothing to declare except my genius.

除了我的天才，我没什么好申报的。

I like men who have a future and women who have a past

我喜欢有未来的男人和有过去的女人。

Pessimist⁵: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

悲观主义者是这种人：当他可以从两种罪恶中选择时，他把两种都选了。

Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

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。

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。

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。

It is the confession⁶, not the priest, that gives us absolution

给我们赦免的，是忏悔而不是牧师。

I don't want to earn my living; I want to live.

我不想谋生；我想生活。

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

适度是极其致命的事情。过度带来的成功是无可比拟的。

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。

When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers

-An Ideal husband, 1893

当神想惩罚我们时，他们就回应我们的祈祷。

-《一个理想的丈夫》

"Life is never fair...And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not."

-An Ideal Husband，1893

生活从来不是公平的……而且，或许对我们大多数人来说，这是件好事。

-《一个理想的丈夫》