萧伯纳经典英语名言

 　　A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic¹.

　　A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly², science into superstition³, and art into pedantry⁴. Hence University education.

　　A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

　　A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth.

　　Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

　　An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means.There is no such thing in the country.

　　Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.

　　Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

　　England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

　　Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

　　Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

　　Gambling⁵ promises the poor what property performs for the rich--something for nothing.

　　Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

　　Hell is full of musical amateurs.

　　I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite⁶, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.

　　I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

　　If all economists⁷ were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.

　　If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable⁸ must Man be of learning from experience.

　　If the lesser⁹ mind could measure the greater as a footrule can measure a pyramid, there would be finality in universal suffrage¹⁰. As it is, the political problem remains¹¹ unsolved.

　　If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

　　Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

　　Lack of money is the root of all evil.

　　Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

　　Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

　　Patriotism¹² is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.

　　Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.

　　Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

　　The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic¹³ is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

　　The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed but that he cannot believe anyone else.

1 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

2 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。

3 superstition   

n.迷信，迷信行为

参考例句：

• It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
• Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。

4 pedantry   

n.迂腐，卖弄学问

参考例句：

• The book is a demonstration of scholarship without pedantry.这本书表现出学术水平又不故意卖弄学问。
• He fell into a kind of pedantry.他变得有点喜欢卖弄学问。

5 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

6 dynamite   

n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)

参考例句：

• The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
• The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。

7 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 incapable   

adj.无能力的，不能做某事的

参考例句：

• He would be incapable of committing such a cruel deed.他不会做出这么残忍的事。
• Computers are incapable of creative thought.计算机不会创造性地思维。

9 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

10 suffrage   

n.投票，选举权，参政权

参考例句：

• The question of woman suffrage sets them at variance.妇女参政的问题使他们发生争执。
• The voters gave their suffrage to him.投票人都投票选他。

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

12 patriotism   

n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• They obtained money under the false pretenses of patriotism.他们以虚伪的爱国主义为借口获得金钱。

13 skeptic   

n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者

参考例句：

• She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
• How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢？