大人的世界

-Don't you see -- I am very busy with matters of consequence!

He stared at me, thunderstruck.

"Matters of consequence!"

 

-"Then you shall judge yourself," the king answered. "that is the most difficult thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom."

 

一个万事顺从臣民的国王，最终失去了他的臣民。

尽管万事顺从臣民，却振振有词地发号施令，这或许是他傲娇属性下竭力想挽留的一点国王尊严吧。

 

饮酒生愁，借酒消愁-tippler

 

有趣的说理，相当适用于发现新大陆的欧洲舰队。

-"Certainly. When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you discover an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you get an idea before anyone else, you take out a patent on it: it is yours. So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them."

 

-"There is nothing to understand," said the lamplighter. "Orders are orders. Good morning."

 

-Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself.

请你驯服我吧！驯服、羁绊、独一无二的爱

-And if I know -- I, myself -- one flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing -- Oh! You think that is not important!"

 

-One never ought to listen to the flowers.

One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance.

 

-He tossed his golden curls in the breeze.

 

-"It is a little lonely in the desert..."

"It is also lonely among men," the snake said.

 

-The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.

 

-What does that mean -- 'tame'?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."

"To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."

 

-"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you... One must observe the proper rites..."

 重要的是那些看不见的东西

-what is essential is invisible to the eye.

 

-"Only the children know what they are looking for," said the little prince. "They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry..."

"They are lucky," the switchman said.

 

-When I was a little boy I lived in an old house, and legend told us that a treasure was buried there. To be sure, no one had ever known how to find it; perhaps no one had ever even looked for it. But it cast an enchantment over that house. My home was hiding a secret in the depths of its heart...

"Yes," I said to the little prince. "The house, the stars, the desert -- what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!"

 

-In the moonlight I looked at his pale forehead, his closed eyes, his locks of hair that trembled in the wind, and I said to myself: "What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible..."

 

-I raised the bucket to his lips. He drank, his eyes closed. It was as sweet as some special festival treat. This water was indeed a different thing from ordinary nourishment. Its sweetness was born of the walk under the stars, the song of the pulley, the effort of my arms. It was good for the heart, like a present. When I was a little boy, the lights of the Christmas tree, the music of the Midnight Mass, the tenderness of smiling faces, used to make up, so, the radiance of the gifts I received.

闲话

有天，无意间和高中英语老师聊上。她问了我一个问题：

“你怎么看待竞赛？如果能重来高中，你还会投入竞赛这么多吗？”

想起之前政治老师的一句话，政策变动，顶尖的学校不受影响，末流的学校也无所谓，最要命的是那些不上不下的学校。

大量时间金钱精力虚掷，换一个没法派上用场的省一，留下太差而追不上的高考成绩，怎么看都是笔赔本买卖。一如《龙族》的“something for nothing”。路明泽告诉路明非，这句话字面上是“用什么东西来换来虚无”。

我想了一下，回复了英语老师《小王子》的一句摘抄：

“what is essential is invisible to the eye.”