The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer.
逢场作戏和终身不渝之间的区别只在于逢场作戏稍微长一些。
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。
——恋爱总是以自欺开始，以欺人结束。
The very essence of romance is uncertainty.
浪漫的精髓就在于它充满种种可能。
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。
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。
No man is rich enough to buy back his own past.
-An Ideal Husband (1895)
没有人富有到可以赎回自己的过去。
——改编自《理想的丈夫》
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
-The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
真相很少纯粹，也决不简单。
——《不可儿嬉》
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
爱自己是终身浪漫的开始。
——爱自己就是开始延续一生的罗曼史。
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
我们都生活在阴沟里，但仍有人仰望星空。
Most people discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
大多数人发现他们从未后悔的事情只是他们的错误，但发现时已经太晚了。
What is the chief cause of divorce? Marriage.
什么是离婚的主要原因？结婚。
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。
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
伟大的艺术家所看到的，从来都不是世界的本来面目。一旦他看透了，他就不再是艺术家。
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。
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。
We Irish are too poetical to be poets; we are a nation of brilliant failures, but we are the greatest talkers since the Greeks.
我们爱尔兰人太诗意以至不能做诗人，我们的国家里充满才华横溢的失败者，可我们是自希腊人以来最伟大的说空话之人。
What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise
看似痛苦的试炼的往往是伪装的祝福。
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。
Over the piano was printed a notice: Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.
Personal Impressions of America (Leadville) (1883)
钢琴上贴着一条告示：请不要枪杀钢琴师，他已经尽力了。
The heart was made to be broken.
心是用来碎的。
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
公众惊人地宽容。他们可以原谅一切，除了天才。
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。
Why was I born with such contemporaries
为什么我会和这样同时代的人一块出生呢？
A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
诗人可以从任何事件中存活，印刷错误除外。
Only the shallow know themselves.
-Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young (1894)
只有浅薄的人才了解自己。
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。
Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation
不满是个人或民族迈向进步的第一步。
I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments.
我喜欢自言自语，因为这样节约时间，而且不会有人跟我争论。
Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.
格言是智慧耐用的替代品。
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。
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。
Pessimist: 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 confession, 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》
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.
如果男人坚持把她当作一个完全正常的人，女人如何能期望会从他那里获得幸福。
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宠爱着的，这是他们吸引力来源的秘密。
Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.
没有比冷静更让人恼火的。
Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.
声望是我从未经受的侮辱之一。
Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.
奚落是庸才对天才的颂歌。
To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual
什么也不做是世上最难的事情，最困难并且最智慧。
A true friend stabs you in the front.
真朋友才会当面中伤你。
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。
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。
Hatred is blind, as well as love.
恨是盲目的，爱亦然。
Looking good and dressing 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 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。
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 detested 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 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。
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。
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。
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。
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 divide 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》
Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.
-The Sphinx Without a Secret
女人是用来被爱的，不是用来被理解的。
-《没有秘密的斯芬克斯》
Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.
艺术并非模仿生活，而是生活在模仿艺术。
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。
When I was young , I used to think that money was the most important thing in life , now that I am old , I know it is.
我年青时以为金钱至上，而今年事已迈，发现果真如此。
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。
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
一个思想若称不上危险，那么它就不值得被称作思想。
Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.
争论是俗不可耐的，因为道德社会里每个人都持完全相同的观点。
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。
Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
爱国是恶人的美德。
Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
每次人们赞同我的时候，我都觉得自己一定错了。
I am not at all romantic. I am not old enough. I leave romance to my seniors.
我一点都不浪漫。我还不算太老。还是把浪漫留给比我老的人吧。
Wicked women bother one. Good women bore one. That is the only difference between them.
坏女人给我麻烦。好女人令我厌烦。这就是她们唯一的不同。
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
每个人犯了错误，都自称是经验。
——经验是一个人给自己所犯的错误取的名字。
And, after all, what is a fashion? From the artistic point of view, it is usually a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Literary and Other Notes I, Woman's World (November 1887)
时尚是一种让人难以忍受的丑陋，以至于我们不得不每六个月就更改一次。
——时装丑陋得完全令人无法容忍，以至于我们必须每6个月就改变它的样式。
A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
男人的面孔是他的自传，女人的面容是她的幻想作品。
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。
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。
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》
"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 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。
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 decadence 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 perfectly 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 cowardice 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 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。
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 acting. 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 overestimated 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。
It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.
个性善良不如长相美丽，不过个性善良总比生得丑好。
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 wedded 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。
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 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。
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。
This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
悬念是可怕的。我希望它一直延续下去。
Thirty five is a very attractive age; London society is full of women who have of their own free choice remained thirty-five for years.
三十五岁是一个非常有吸引力的年龄；伦敦社交圈内满是这样好多年一直保持三十五岁的女人，她们可以自由地挑来选去。
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
失去一个父母可以看成是一种不幸；失去双亲看上去就像是一种粗心了。
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。
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。
Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes.
恭维话从来没有让女人缴械，但可以让男人缴械。这就是性别差异。
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。
Women love men for their defects; if men have enough of them women will forgive them everything, even their gigantic intellects.
女人因为男人的缺点而爱男人；如果男人的缺点足够多，女人什么事都可以原谅他们，哪怕是他们的智力。
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。
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
一个人倘若不为自己思考，那就从未思考过。
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。
Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.
雄心壮志是失败最后的避难所。
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.
一个极其优秀的人。他没有敌人，而他的朋友也没有一个喜欢他的。
Time is a waste of money.
-Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young (1894)
时间即是浪费金钱。
If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.
说真话的人迟早要被揭穿。
