"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》

"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》

*注：吉尔登斯吞，霍尔王子均为莎士比亚作品中人物

A little sincerity¹ is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

不够真诚是危险的，太真诚则绝对是致命的。

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。

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。

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence² without civilization in between.

美国是唯一一个直接从野蛮进入颓废、中间没有经过文明阶段的社会。

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。

As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly³ satisfied.

只要一个女人看上去比她自己的女儿小十岁，她就一定会心满意足。

Bad artists always admire each other's work.

糟糕的画家总是欣赏彼此的作品。

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。

Conscience and cowardice⁴ are really the same things.

良心和怯懦其实是一回事。

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。

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

民主就是指人民用人民的大头棒打击人民。

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。

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 adore political parties. They are the only place left to us where people don't talk politics.

我喜欢政治晚会，这是唯一人们不谈政治的地方。

I am not young enough to know everything.

我已经老了，没有足够的时间去了解一切。

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。

I have made an important discovery…that alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, produces all the effects of intoxication⁵.

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。

I like talking to a brick wall, it's the only thing in the world that never contradicts me.

我喜欢对一堵墙说话，世界上只有它不会反驳我。

I love acting⁶. It is so much more real than life.

我喜欢看戏。与人生相比，戏剧更加真实。

I often take exercise. Why only yesterday I had breakfast in bed.

我经常锻炼。只是昨天我是在床上吃的早饭。

I think that God, in creating Man, somewhat overestimated⁷ his ability.

我想，上帝在创造人类时高估了他的能力。

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。

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。

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。