今天上网搜索王尔德的一句名言，无意中发现一个专门搜集名人名言的网站，匆匆浏览了一部分，只觉得齿颊留香，获益良多，不介绍给大家实在于心不忍。下面摘录一些王尔德和罗素的名言，算是介绍和推荐。

王尔德，唯美主义的代表，享乐主义的化身，当年以连珠的妙语征服英国上流社会，一百多年后重新欣赏，“王式语录”的魅力依然不减。也许有人会觉得王尔德过于浮华，写作、言谈之中有哗众取宠之嫌。但我们细细品味，还是能感受到他夸张、戏噱的言辞之下隐藏不住的智慧和才气。

王尔德的艺术观点在当时引起轩然大波，也给他惹来不少麻烦；但今天看来，他无疑是超越了他所处的时代
"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

他自己也意识到了这一点。
"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."

不知道这是不是最大胆的为艺术而艺术的宣言。
"All art is quite useless."
"Art never expresses anything but itself."

可以想象，王尔德对糟糕作品是多么的痛恨。
"Bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all."


也许王尔德对一切都抱着无所谓的态度，但至少他对艺术的追求和崇拜是真诚的
"It is through Art and through Art only that we can realize our perfection; through Art and Art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence"

对自己的天才十分自负，对凡人的不理解不屑一顾。这句是改自“Caricature is the tribute that mediocrity paid to genius”
"Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities."

明确的把生活放在创作之上，顺便再夸一下自己
"I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works."

美是天才的一种形式，又高于天才。
"Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon."

王尔德曾受邀赴美演讲，在海关处被要求申报财产，他说了下面这一句。确实够狂傲，可是大多自我感觉良好者，可能既没有他的才气，也没有他的傲气
"I have nothing to declare but my genius."


一句话解决了新大陆的文明地位。连自己的国家他都看不上眼，称之为Our National Stupidity，还能指望他夸奖浅薄的美国佬？
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."

热心的为好的美国人安排出路。
"When good Americans die they go to Paris."

典型的王尔德式幽默
"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."

这一句流传甚广
"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation."

你同意这一句吗？
"Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not."

关于教育,大放“厥词”，可细想又不无道理
"In examinations, the foolish ask questions the wise cannot answer"
"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

感觉很像顾城的“黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛。。。。。”，纯净而坚决，诗一样的美丽，
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

王尔德着力最多的领域是对男女、爱情、婚姻和romance的调侃。他的小说和戏剧中的主人公，个个都是口若悬河，强词夺理，恶毒和刻薄的让人拍案叫绝。以下分享数条：
"One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry."
"Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects."
"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."
"Don't give a woman advice: one should never give a woman anything she can't wear in evening
"Woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends up blocking his retreat."
"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."
"Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot"
"Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other."
"Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which is never advisable."
"Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious; both are disappointed."
双方都失望了，是否人生就没有希望了呢？幸亏还有这样一句：
"To love one's self is the beginning of a life-long romance"


罗素似乎是另一个极端，理智，冷静，内敛，坚持自由主义，主张Common Sense，但是那智慧和理性所显现的灵光，依然是迷人而又发人深省的。


在暴政之下，罗素不主张作无谓的牺牲，但也划下了一条底线。王尔德不相信原则，但罗素有自己的坚持。
"One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny"

关于民主。想想不久前美国和台湾的选举，不得不叹服罗素的洞察力，反智主义几乎是现代民主选举必然的结果。
"Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them."

和平主义者。这种冷幽默又是多么的触目惊心。
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."

关于婚姻，大家自己看吧。
"Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution."


这句对教育制度的辛辣讽刺不在王尔德之下。是不是越是聪明人就越痛恨教育制度的僵化？
"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."

对爱国主义的质疑，或者说，对“爱国主义”的质疑。
“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.”
“ Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.”

对信仰的质疑。我们听惯了关于理想和信仰的豪言壮语，也看到太多人真的为之付出一切，再来听听这个一脸怀疑的老头子所说的话，你有什么想法呢？
“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”

"Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one"


对宗教丝毫不留情面。
"It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion"

思考是世界之光。
"Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, the chief glory of man."

对自动放弃思考的深恶痛绝
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.

对常识、常理的坚持，是罗素一以贯之的原则。可惜的是，很多事情都是知易行难，否则“亩产万斤”的神话怎么会风靡全国呢？
“Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occured to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.”

对智慧的坚守，对愚昧的抗争，好似中国古诗中的回文，读来斩钉截铁，掷地作金石声
"Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness"



这世界上有太多无趣的、无聊的、无知的、乃至于无耻的语言，幸好还有这些闪耀着智慧和幽默的吉光片羽，给人以理性和志趣上的收获，正如王尔德所言，"We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities."，显然，我们所能得到的，绝不仅仅是那些unnecessary things。


网站：http://en.thinkexist.com/


April 26, 2005