马克土温妙语连珠（续）

武夷山

郝炘老师又提供了几条马克土温的语录，让我翻译。那就恭敬不如从命。正如郝老师所说，有些话，不一定是马克土温第一个说的，但后人以为是他说的。这就好像维吾尔族民众把无数有意思的故事都安在阿凡提身上一样。

Everybody's private motto: It's better to be popular than right. (郝老师提示：这句对网络时代很适用)

适用于每个人的座右铭：与其正确，不如得宠。

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

良好的教养表现在：将我们多么看重自己而罔顾他人这一事实给掩盖住。

You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.

如果你的想象力不清晰，那你的判断力也靠不住。

If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.

如果你不读报，就啥事不知道。如果你当真读报，就中了套。

Never let your schooling interfere with your education.

决不要让你在学校习得的知识干扰了自己的见识。

 Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

爱国主义一直在拥戴自己的国家，也在拥戴自己的政府，如果它还配被拥戴的话。

Citizenship? We have none! In place of it we teach patriotism which Samuel Johnson said a hundred and forty or a hundred and fifty years ago was the last refuge of the scoundrel -- and I believe that he was right. I remember when I was a boy and I heard repeated time and time again the phrase, 'My country, right or wrong, my country!' How absolutely absurd is such an idea. How absolutely absurd to teach this idea to the youth of the country.

文明表现？我们根本没有！我们这里不教文明表现，却教爱国主义。塞繆尔.约翰逊一百四十年或一百五十年前就说过:爱国主义是恶人的最后藏身之地――我确信此言不差。我记得，小时候不知多少遍听过这样的话：“对也好，错也好，这是我的国家呀！”这样的想法是多么地绝顶荒唐。把这样的观念灌输给我国的年轻人是多么地绝顶荒唐。