毛姆语录
The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.
人生的大悲剧不是人会死亡，而是他们不再爱了。
——毛姆
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
小说写作有三大法则，可惜没人知道它们是什么！
——毛姆
作为一名坚定的犬儒主义者，我对人类的愚蠢抱有极大的宽容心。
——毛姆
唯有承认了孤独的必然，才能享受不从众的自在，有多少孤独就有多少真实。
——毛姆《剧院风情》
Impropriety is the soul of wit.
不当是风趣的精髓。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
在爱情的事上如果你考虑起自尊心来，那只能有一个原因：实际上你还是最爱自己。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
苦难并不能铸就高贵的品格，反倒是幸福有时能做到这一点。而大多数情况下，苦难只会使人狭隘卑劣，心怀怨愤。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
或许一个人如果想体会到生活中的浪漫情调就必须在某种程度上是个演员；而要想跳出自身之外，则必须能够对自己的行动抱着一种既超然物外又沉浸于其中的兴趣。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
爱情使一个人变得更强大，同时也使他变得更渺小。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
爱情最主要的成分是温柔。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
渴望获得别人的认可，恐怕是文明人最根深蒂固的一种本能。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
卑鄙与伟大、恶毒与善良、仇恨与热爱是可以互不排斥地并存在同一颗心里的。
——毛姆《月亮与六便士》
There was no meaning in life, and man by living served no end. It was immaterial whether he was born or not born, whether he lived or ceased to live. Life was insignificant and death without consequence. Philip exulted, as he had exulted in his boyhood when the weight of a belief in God was lifted from his shoulders: it seemed to him that the last burden of responsibility was taken from him; and for the first time he was utterly free.
生活没有意义，人活着也没有目的。出世还是不出世，活着还是死去，均无关紧要。生命微不足道，而死亡也无足轻重。想到这里，菲利普心头掠过一阵狂喜，正如他童年时当摆脱了笃信上帝的重压后所怀有的那种心情一样。在他看来，生活最后一副重担从肩上卸了下来，他平生第一次感到彻底自由了。
——毛姆 《人生的枷锁》
His insignificance was turned to power, and he felt himself suddenly equal with the cruel fate which had seemed to persecute him; for, if life was meaningless, the world was robbed of its cruelty. What he did or left undone did not matter. Failure was unimportant and success amounted to nothing. He was the most inconsiderate creature in that swarming mass of mankind which for a brief space occupied the surface of the earth; and he was almighty because he had wrenched from chaos the secret of its nothingness.
原先他以为自己人微言轻，无足轻重，而眼下却觉得自己顶天立地，强大无比。陡然间，他仿佛觉得自己同一直在迫害着他的残酷的命运势均力敌，不相上下了。既然生活毫无意义，尘世也就无残忍可言。不论是做过的还是没来得及做过的事，一概都无关宏旨。失败毫不足奇，成功也等于零。他不过是暂时占据在地球表层的芸芸众生中间的一个最不起眼的动物而已；然而，他又无所不能，因为他能从一片混沌之中探出其奥秘来。
——毛姆 《人生的枷锁》
Philip thought that in throwing over the desire for happiness he was casting aside the last of his illusions. His life had seemed horrible when it was measured by its happiness, but now he seemed to gather strength as he realised that it might be measured by something else. Happiness mattered as little as pain. They came in, both of them, as all the other details of his life came in, to the elaboration of the design.
菲利普认为他抛弃了追求幸福的欲念，便是抛弃了他的最后一个不切实际的幻想。用幸福这根尺来衡量，那他的生活就显得很可怕；然而当他意识到还有别的尺来衡量他的生活时，顿然觉得浑身充满了力量。幸福跟痛苦一样的微不足道，它们的降临，跟生活中出现的其他细节一样，不过是使得人生格局更趋纷繁复杂罢了。
——毛姆 《人生的枷锁》
There was one pattern, the most obvious, perfect, and beautiful, in which a man was born, grew to manhood, married, produced children, toiled for his bread, and died; but there were others, intricate and wonderful, in which happiness did not enter and in which success was not attempted; and in them might be discovered a more troubling grace.
有一种格局，最明显，最完美无缺，同时也最漂亮动人。这种格局是一个人呱呱坠地来到人间，渐渐长大成人，恋爱结婚，生儿育女，为挣片面包而含辛茹苦，最终登腿弃世而去。但是生活还有别的样式的格局，这些格局虽杂乱无章，却是妙不可言，幸福从未涉足其间，人们也不追逐功名，但从中可以感觉到一种更加乱人心思的雅趣。
——毛姆 《人生的枷锁》
人生既已如此颠簸可怖，知道它没有意义反而使人鼓足勇气、大胆面对。
——毛姆 《人生的枷锁》
既然生活毫无意义，尘世也就无残忍可言了。
——毛姆 《人生的枷锁》
Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.
金钱好比第六感官，少了它，就别想让其余的五种感官充分发挥作用。
——毛姆 《人生的枷锁》
For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they were born, the city apartment or the farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can’t come to know by hearsay, you can only know them if you have lived them. You can only know them if you are them.
因为人不论男男女女，都不仅仅是他们自身；他们也是自己出生的乡土，学步的农场或城市公寓，儿时玩的游戏，私下听来的山海经，吃的饭食，上的学校，关心的运动，吟哦的诗章，和信仰的上帝。这一切东西把他们造成现在这样，而这些东西都不是道听途说就可以了解的，你非得和那些人生活过。要了解这些，你就得是这些。
——毛姆 《刀锋》
I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection.
我认为一个人能够追求的最高理想就是自我的完善。
——毛姆 《刀锋》
He taught that we are all greater than we know and that wisdom is the means to freedom. He taught that it is not essential to salvation to retire from the world, but only to renounce the self.
他教导说，人都比他自视的为高，而智慧是解脱之道。他教导说，要脱离苦海并不一定要出家，只要去掉一个我字。
——毛姆 《刀锋》
钱能够给我带来人世上最宝贵的东西——不求人。
——毛姆 《刀锋》
自我牺牲是压倒一切的情感，连淫欲和饥饿跟它比较起来都微不足道了。它使人对自己的人格做出最高评价，驱使人走向毁灭。
——毛姆 《刀锋》
Time, because it is so fleeting, time, because it is beyond recall, is the most precious of human goods and to squander it is is the most delicate form of dissipation in which man can indulge.
时间，正因为它稍纵即逝，时间，正因为它一去不返，所以它是世间最珍贵的财富，而虚掷光阴则是可以令人纵情其中的最精美的消遣。
——毛姆 《毛姆短篇小说精选集》
I have noticed that when I am most serious people are apt to laugh at me, and indeed when after a lapse of time I have read passages that I wrote from the fullness of my heart I have been tempted to laugh at myself. It must be that there is something naturally absurd in a sincere emotion, though why there should be I cannot imagine, unless it is that man, the ephemeral inhabitant of an insignificant planet, with all his pain and all his striving is but a jest in an eternal mind.
我早就发现在我最严肃的时候，人们却总要发笑。实际上等我过了一段时间重读自己当初用真诚的感情所写的那些话时，我也忍不住想要笑我自己。这一定是因为真诚的感情本身有着某种荒唐可笑的地方，不过我也想不出为什么会如此，莫非因为人本来只是一个无足轻重的行星上的短暂居民，因此对于永恒的心灵而言，一个人一生的痛苦和奋斗只不过是个笑话而已。
——毛姆《寻欢作乐》
美是完美无疵的，而任何完美无疵的事物也只能吸引我们一会儿工夫。
——毛姆《寻欢作乐》
美是一条死胡同。它就像一座山峰，一旦攀登到了峰顶，就会发现往前无处可去。
——毛姆《寻欢作乐》
虚伪是一个人所能寻求的最困难、最刺激神经的恶习，它需要永不间断的警觉和精神的高度集中。它不像通奸或贪食可以在空闲的时间进行；它是需要付出全部时间从事的工作；它还需要一种玩世不恭的幽默。
——毛姆《寻欢作乐》
一个人年轻的时候总是把别人对你的好意看成是理所当然的。
——毛姆《寻欢作乐》
To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
培养阅读的习惯能够为你筑造一座避难所，让你逃脱几乎人世间的所有悲哀。
——毛姆《阅读是一座随身携带的避难所》
善比爱更伟大，不会随时间的推移而失去其欢愉。
——毛姆《毛姆读书随笔》
天生善良的人往往是不太有趣的。
——毛姆《毛姆读书随笔》
做人的目的不是别的，只是为了寻求自身的快乐，即使是舍己为人，那也是出于一种幻想，以为自己所要寻求的快乐就是慷慨大方。
——毛姆《毛姆读书随笔》
艺术品是人类活动的至高产物，是人类经受种种苦难、无穷艰辛和绝望挣扎的最后证明。
——毛姆《毛姆读书随笔》
当他并不知道自己在说教时，他的说教是最有效的。
——毛姆《毛姆读书随笔》
在不幸的故事里，事件的发生是偶然的，而在悲剧里，却是其中人物性格的必然结果。
——毛姆《巨匠与杰作》
逗乐中不带一点儿恶毒也是很难的。慈悲心肠毕竟不怎么带劲儿。
——毛姆《巨匠与杰作》
生命的尽头，就像人在黄昏时分读书，读啊读，没有察觉光线渐暗；直到他停下来休息，才猛然发现白天已经过去，天已经很暗，再低头看书却什么都看不清了，书页已不再有意义。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned.
没有获得过回报的爱持续的时间最长。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
在绝大多数情况下，痛苦绝不能提高人的修养，只能让人变得粗暴无情。贫穷也是一种痛苦。贫困让他们变得既贪婪又卑鄙，既奸诈又虚伪。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
一个女人大可以想多坏就多坏，但要是她长得不漂亮的话，那么做可就没啥好处了。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
愚蠢的人一旦无事可做，就百般无聊。做一个闲人需要多才多艺而且修养极高，或者要有一个与众不同的头脑。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
如果你告诉别人如此这般才对，说得多了，最终他们也就会相信你，而且如果你不给他们个理由的话，他们对你的观点可能会更加欣然接受。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
一个人只有主观武断才能统治别人。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
只有没主见的人才接受道德规范，有主见的人有自己的准则。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
一个人的境界在享用大餐时最能体现。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
哲学让我们能平静地做些我们实在不想做的事儿。
——毛姆《作家笔记》
When love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.
当爱与责任合而为一，你就受了上天的眷顾。你会享受到一种无法言表的幸福。
——毛姆 《面纱》
任何瞬间的心动都不容易，不要怠慢了它。
——毛姆 《爱德华•巴纳德的堕落》
我旅行一趟，回来的时候不会依然故我。
——毛姆《客厅里的绅士》