提要
愛爾蘭劇作家蕭伯納,早年靠寫作音樂和文學評論謀生,後來因為寫作戲劇而出名,獲得諾貝爾文學獎。寫過約六十部戲劇的他,擅長以黑色幽默形式揭露社會問題,常有一針見血的效果。
1. A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
2. Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.
3. Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about cre ating yourself.
4. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
5. Animals are my friends......and I don't eat my friends.
6. Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
7. People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are.
I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.
8. Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
9. Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.
10. If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
解 說
1. 不斷嘗試犯錯的人生,不僅比無所事事地活著更光榮,而且更有用。
2. 人人都應自我規範,你不會讀的書,別叫孩子讀。
3. 人生不應該只是自我尋找,真正意義是自我創造。
4. 理性的人適應這世界;不理性的人堅持讓世界適應自己。正因為如此,所有進步都仰賴於不理性的人。
5. 動物是我的朋友……我不會吃我的朋友。
(★蕭伯納出身貧苦,即使在他成名之後,依然崇尚儉樸的生活。他喜歡素食,早晚餐多半是黑麵包、通心粉、扁豆、生菜等搭配可可茶。午餐在街上的素食餐廳用餐;即使在宴會上,他也是以礦泉水代酒,滴酒不沾。這種方式,讓他健康地活到九十六歲。他的衣著也不追求華麗時尚,喜歡棉毛織物,舒適、整潔最重要。)
6. 千萬別與豬搏鬥,你和豬都會變髒,而且豬還很喜歡。(★豬其實很愛乾淨,無論吃飯睡覺都會固定在一個乾淨的區域,而且保持整潔,如果發現水源,還會跳下去洗個澡。十九世紀出生的蕭伯納還沒這種觀念,「別與豬搏鬥」的譬喻應該只是勸人:「別跟不講理的人一般見識!」)
7. 人們總是自認成功與否取決於運勢,我不這麼認為。在這個世界上取得成功的人,是那些抬頭挺胸、勇於尋找自己所需命運的人,如果找不到,那就應該自己創造。
8. 那些無法改變主意的人,什麼都改變不了。(★一般來說,形容一個人經常「change his mind」改變主意,似乎是讓人不敢恭維的「三心二意」;但蕭伯納的意思是:「別冥頑不靈、不知變通 。」如果前面的標語寫著「此路不通」,當然要「change your mind」改道而行,免得掉進工地坑洞。)
9. 成功不在於從不犯錯,而在於永遠不會再犯同樣的錯誤。
10. 如果你有一個蘋果,我也有一個蘋果,我們交換這兩個蘋果,那麼你我仍然只有一個蘋果;但如果你有一個想法,我也有一個想法,我們交換意見,那麼我們兩人都會有兩個想法。(★蕭伯納先生鼓勵多思考,多交換意見:「集思廣益。」另外,《論語》為政篇說:「學而不思則罔,思而不學則殆。」孔子告誡學生,結合學習和思考,才能學到確實有用的知識。如果蕭先生巧遇孔子,兩位再交換些意見,一定有益國家民族社會大眾。)