A COLLECTION OF GOOD WORDS
书
Book
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
书籍构成的资本。图书馆里的书可以和房子一样长，可以保存几百年。因此，它不仅是一种消费工具，而且是一种相当可观的资本，而且就职业人士而言，它往往是他们人生中唯一的资本。
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the prope.
独创性不过是明智的模仿。最具独创性的作家互相借鉴。我们从书中得到的指导就像火一样。我们从邻居那里得到它，在家里点燃它，与他人交流它，它就变成了一个过程。
I hope in my books I help children to see their strengths, and show them I have some idea of what they may occasionally be going through. Especially at tricky moments when it is easier to go back and evade things rather than go forwards and confront them.
我希望在我的书中，我能帮助孩子们看到他们的优点，并向他们展示我对他们偶尔可能经历的事情有一些了解。尤其是在棘手的时刻，回到过去逃避事情比向前面对事情更容易。
I've tried to reduce profanity but I reduced so much profanity when writing the book that I'm afraid not much could come out. Perhaps we will have to consider it simply as a profane book and hope that the next book will be less profane or perhaps more sacred.
我试着减少亵渎，但在写这本书的时候，我减少了太多的亵渎，以至于我担心写不出什么来。也许我们将不得不把它简单地看作是一本亵渎神明的书，并希望下一本书将少一些亵渎神明，或者更神圣一些。
I get letters from readers who say that they have always hated reading, but somebody suggested one of my books, they actually finished the book and enjoyed it, and they're going on to read another book. I'm thrilled that they have figured out that reading is fun.
我收到一些读者的来信，他们说他们一直讨厌阅读，但有人推荐了我的一本书，他们实际上读完了这本书，而且很喜欢，他们还打算读另一本书。我很高兴他们发现阅读很有趣。
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
即使在文学和艺术领域，也没有人为原创而烦恼的人永远不会是原创的。相反，如果你只是想说真话(不在乎别人告诉你多少次)，十有八九你会在没有注意到的情况下变得原创。
I imagine a child. That child is me. I can reconstruct and vividly remember portions of my own childhood. I can see, taste, smell, feel, and hear them. Then what I do is, not write about that kid or about his world, but start to think of a book that would have pleased him.
我想象一个孩子。那个孩子就是我。我能重建并生动地回忆起我童年的某些部分。我能看见、尝到、闻到、感觉到并听到它们。然后我要做的，不是写那个孩子或他的世界，而是开始想一本他会喜欢的书。
I knew that if I wrote a new book every six months or every year, if I continued to read great books, eventually I would write something worthy of publication. I understood I might be in my forties or my fifties or even my sixties, but I felt confident that it would happen.
我知道如果我每六个月或每年写一本新书，如果我继续读好书，最终我会写出一些值得出版的东西。我知道我可能在四十多岁，五十多岁，甚至六十多岁，但我相信这将会发生。
I look for two things when I am about to launch into a book. First, there has to be a dramatic arc to the story itself that will carry me, and the reader, from beginning to end. Second, the story has to weave through larger themes that can illuminate the world of the subject.
当我要开始写一本书的时候，我会考虑两件事。首先，故事本身必须有一个戏剧性的弧线，让我和读者从头到尾都能读懂。其次，故事必须贯穿更大的主题，才能照亮主题的世界。
Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have not the time nor means to get more.
为什么我们伟大作家的作品没有更多地散布在全国各地?伟大的书不是每个人都能得到的;虽然全面地了解他们比只在这里和那里了解他们要好，但是给那些没有时间也没有办法得到更多的人一点帮助是一件好事。
I don't think one can accurately measure the historical effectiveness of a poem; but one does know, of course, that books influence individuals; and individuals, although they are part of large economic and social processes, influence history. Every mass is after all made up of millions of individuals.
我不认为人们可以准确地衡量一首诗的历史效力;但人们当然知道，书籍影响着个人;个人，虽然他们是大的经济和社会进程的一部分，影响着历史。每个群体毕竟是由数百万个体组成的。
The real risks for any artist are taken in pushing the work to the limits of what is possible, in the attempt to increase the sum of what it is possible to think. Books become good when they go to this edge and risk falling over it when they endanger the artist by reason of what he has, or has not, artistically dared.
对任何艺术家来说，真正的风险在于将作品推向可能的极限，试图增加思考可能的总和。当书走到这条边缘时，就会变得很好;当书因为艺术家在艺术上的大胆而危及到他时，就会有掉下去的危险。
KEEP EXPLORING
沿着这个主题，再读几句。
I don't know how the editors are going to take it or how it may be received. But to some extent I'm hoping that with the next book, when people pick it up and read it, it will scare the pants off of them.
我不知道编辑们会怎么看，也不知道他们会怎么接受。但在某种程度上，我希望下一本书，当人们拿起来读的时候，能把他们吓得魂飞魄散。
The most accomplished way of using books is to serve them as some people do lords; learn their titles and then brag of their acquaintance.
使用书籍最成功的方法是像某些人做领主一样为他们服务;学习他们的头衔，然后吹嘘他们的熟人。
I'm an open book.
我是个坦率的人。
You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel as if you've lost a friend.
当你翻到最后一页的时候，你知道你读了一本好书，感觉就像失去了一个朋友。
Hold a book in your hand and you're a pilgrim at the gates of a new city.
如果你手里拿着一本书，你就是一个新城市的朝圣者。
A book is a dream that you hold in your hands.
一本书是你手中的一个梦。