奥斯卡·王尔德(Oscar Wilde,1854~1900),19世纪出生在英国(准确来讲是爱尔兰,但是当时由英国统治。)最伟大的作家与艺术家之一,以其剧作、诗歌、童话和小说闻名。唯美主义代表人物,19世纪80年代美学运动的主力和90年代颓废派运动的先驱。
“神是奇怪的。他们不但借助我们的恶来惩罚我们,也利用我们内心的美好、善良、慈悲、关爱,来毁灭我们。”王尔德的一生成为了这句话的注脚。他留下的童话、长篇小说等至今让读者爱不释手。此外,广为流传的还有他的毒舌。今天我们就一起来欣赏一下:
The heart was made to be broken.
心是用来碎的。
It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.
只有肤浅的人才不会以貌取人。
Only the shallow know themselves
只有浅薄的人才了解自己。
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.
现如今无用的信息这么少,真是可悲。
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
时尚就是一种丑陋,因为丑得太难容忍,所以我们每半年要换一拨。
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else' s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
大多数人都不是自己。他们的思想是别人的意见,他们的生活是在模仿别人的生活,他们的恋爱也只是引述而已。
The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it.
再普通的东西,只要你把它藏起来,它就讨人喜欢。
What is the chief cause of divorce? Marriage.
什么是离婚的主要原因?结婚。
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
做你自己,因为别人都有人做了。
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。
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.
摆脱诱惑的唯一方法是向诱惑屈服。我能抵御一切——除了诱惑。
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
爱自己是终身浪漫的开始。
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything.
老时相信一切,中年怀疑一切,青年知道一切。
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
人们给自己犯过的错误取名叫做经验。
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。
A little sincerity 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。
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。
The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.
处理好建议的唯一方式就是将它传下去。好建议对自己是没有用的。
The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
生活的秘诀在于,要好好体尝被骗得很惨的乐趣。
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
把人分为好坏挺荒谬的。人要不就有魅力,要不就无趣。
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
生活中只有两个悲剧:一个是没有得到你想要的,另外一个是得到了你想要的。
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。
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。
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
过自己想要的生活不是自私,要求别人按自己的意愿生活才是。
When gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayer.
若诸神要惩罚我等,必先让我等如愿以偿。
The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
比被人谈论更糟糕的事只能是不被人谈论。
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。
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
我们都在阴沟里,但仍有人仰望星空。
Men become old, but they never become good.
人们越长越老,但绝不会越变越好。
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。
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
My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has to go.
墙纸越来越破,而我越来越老,两者之间总有一个要先消失。
——1900年11月30日,于左岸旅店,他的遗言。