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On Lying

论说谎

Now as to the matter of lying. You want to be very careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught. Once caught, you can never again be, in the eyes of the good and the pure, what you were before.

现在来谈一谈说谎。你们可要特别谨慎地看待说谎；否则你们十有八九会被揭穿。一旦被揭穿，在善良和纯朴的人们眼中，你就再也不可能是以前的你了。

Many a young person has injured himself permanently through a single clumsy and ill-finished lie, the result of carelessness born of incomplete training. Some authorities hold that the young ought not to lie at all. That, of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still, while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance, and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable.

许多年轻人，单单由于一次拙劣难圆的谎言——由不完备的教育而导致的轻率后果—— 使得自己恒久蒙受损失。一些权威人士主张，年轻人根本不应当说谎。当然，这种说法言之过甚，其实未必如此。不过，虽然我不能把话讲得太过分，我却坚信——我认为确乎如此——在实践和阅历使人获得信心、文雅、严谨之前，年轻人运用这门伟大的艺术是要有分寸的。

Patience, diligence, painstaking attention to detail - these are the requirements; these, in time, will make the student perfect; upon these, and upon these only, may he rely as the sure foundation for future eminence. Think what tedious years of study, thought, practice, experience, went to the equipment of that peerless old master who was able to impose upon the whole world the lofty and sounding maxim that "truth is mighty and will prevail" - the most majestic compound feature of fact which any of woman born has yet achieved.

只有三点才能使说谎的本领无伤大雅甚至带来益处：耐心、勤奋、细致入微——这些是必备素质；这些 素质日久天长便会使学生变得完善起来;凭借这些，也只有凭借 这些，他才可能为将来的出类拔萃打下牢固的基础。试想，要经 过多么漫长的岁月，通过学习、思考、实践、经验，那举世无双的 前辈才具备如此的素养，他使得整个世界接受了 “真理是强大 的，并且终将战胜一切“这句崇高而响彻云霄的格言——这是关于事实的复杂性所道出的最威严的一句话，至今任何一个出自娘胎的人都未有此成就。

For the history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal. There is in Boston a monument of the man who discovered anesthesia; many people are aware, in these latter days, that that man didn't discover it at all, but stole the discovery from another man. Is this truth mighty, and will it prevail? Ah no, my hearers, the monument is made of hard material, but the lie it tells will outlast a million years. An awkward, feeble, leaky lie is a thing which you ought to make it your unceasing study to avoid; such a lie as that has no more real permanence than an average truth. Why, you might as well tell the truth at once and be done with it.

原因是我们全人类的历史，以及每个人的经历，都深深地印证了这样的事实：一个真理不难抹杀，一个说得巧妙的谎言则经久不衰。在波士顿有一座为发现麻醉法的人立的纪念碑：很多人到近期才知道，那个人根本没有发现麻醉法，而是窃取了另一个人的发现。这个真理强大吗？它终会取胜吗？啊，非也，听众们，纪念碑是用坚硬的材料建造的，而它所揭示的谎言却将比它持久一百万年。一个拙劣脆弱而又破绽 百出的谎言是你们应该不断学会避免的东西；诸如此类的谎言，比起一个普通事实来，决不具有更加真实的永久性。嗨，你们何不讲真话以及同真理打交道。