THE SAYINGS OF JOHN MCCARTHY 约翰·麦卡锡语录 Vol.1 作者：John McCarthy
译者：斑马（@鹿兔马朦）
校对：慕白（@李凤阳他说）
来源：John McCarthy's Home Page， http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/sayings.html Mankind will probably survive even if it doesn't take my advice. - jmc
即便不采纳我的建议，人类大概也能活下去。
Equality of the sexes is more important than equality of the genders. - jmc 1985
雌雄平等比男女平等更重要。
As the Chinese say, 1001 words is worth more than a picture. - jmc
正如中国人所说，一千零一言胜一图。【 译注：此处麦卡锡好像是在拿“一图胜千言”这句话开玩笑，笑点请自己找。 】
During the second millennium, the Earthmen complained a lot. - jmc
在第二个千年间，地球人抱怨连连。
When there's a will to fail, obstacles can be found. - jmc 1983 March
如果你想失败的话，障碍总是找得到的。
There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. - Victor Hugo
Yes, even if it's a bad idea.- jmc
如果一种理念得逢其时，那么它将无往不胜。。——维克多·雨果
是啊，即便是个糟糕的理念。——约翰·麦卡锡
Everyone needs computer programming. It will be the way we speak to the servants.- jmc, 1966. Alas, it didn't come to pass.
每个人都需要编程。它将是我们与仆人对话的方式。——约翰·麦卡锡，1966。哎，没有成真。
Personal dishonesty is not needed to produce a dishonest business plan or research proposal. Wishful thinking suffices. - jmc 1986
欺骗性的商业计划或研究提案不必源自个人的不诚实。一厢情愿就够了。
People prefer dealing with machinery to dealing with bureaucracies. - jmc 1986
相比起应付官僚制度，人们更愿应付机器。
Your denial of the importance of objectivity amounts to announcing your intention to lie to us. No-one should believe anything you say. - jmc 1986
你否认客观性的重要意义，这就等于宣布，你打算对我们说谎。所有人都不该相信你说的任何话。
You are eager to defend rationality against the creationists. Fine. Are you also willing to defend it against the environmentalists? - jmc 1989
你们这么热情的支持理性主义，反对神创论者。好啊，那你们也愿意支持理性主义并反对环保主义者吗？
Cynicism is a cheap substitute for sophistication. You don't actually have to learn anything. - jmc 1989
犬儒主义是老于世故的廉价替代品。因为你并不需要为此去学任何东西。
We can't afford to waste money on crossing the ocean, Mr. Columbus, when Spanish society has so many unsolved problems. Why, most of those Jews and Moors we have converted aren't really sincere Catholics, and a lack of money to hire more inquisitors has put their questionings so far behind that many have died of natural causes before the Holy Inquisition ever got around to them. - jmc 1993
哥伦布先生，西班牙社会还有许多问题没解决，我们不能将钱浪费在航海上。那些被我们改变了信仰的犹太人和摩尔人中，大多数都不是真正虔诚的天主教徒，因为没钱雇用更多的宗教裁判官，审判进度大大拖后了，恐怕在对他们进行审判之前，他们就已经自然死亡了。
He who claims that affairs could not be worse is very likely to make them worse. - jmc 1989
那些宣称事情不会更糟的人，很可能会让事情变得更糟。
Asking someone to recite his favorite modern poem is about as fair as asking him recite his favorite crossword puzzle. - jmc 1988
让一个人背诵他最喜欢的现代诗就好像让他背诵他最喜欢的填字迷一样无稽。
Malthus was right. It's hard to see how the solar system could support much more than 10^28 people or the universe more than 10^50. - jmc 1987
马尔萨斯是对的。我弄不懂太阳系如何能够供养超过10的28次方的人口，也不明白宇宙如何能够承受超过10的50次方的人口。
He has a tragic vision of life - as in a cigarette ad. - jmc
他对生命的看法很悲观，就如同烟草广告中展现的那样。
Writing a ‘future work’ section of a paper is like a dog pissing on the trees at the boundary of its territory. - jmc 1991
为一篇论文撰写“未来研究展望”这一节时，就像一条狗在领地边界的树上撒尿。
Young men can readily be roused to fight. If the institutions of the United States and of California didn't prevent it, the middle-aged men of Palo Alto and Menlo Park could readily get the teen agers of these cities to shoot at each other across San Francisquito Creek over the proper location of the Willow Road extension. - jmc 1990
年轻小伙们随时都可以被惹得挥舞拳头。如果美国和加州的法律不对此加以阻止，帕洛阿尔托和门洛帕克城的中年男子将不难让这些城市的少年们因为Willow Road延长线的选址而在San Francisquito Creek两侧开枪火拼。
It doesn't matter if the children are illiterate, provided they are all equally illiterate. - jmc 1998
孩子们识不识字并没那么重要，只要他们平等地不识字就行了。
Comparing oneself with Galileo or Einstein is certainly good for the ego - provided one refrains from going into too much detail. - jmc 1996
将自己同伽利略或爱因斯坦相提并论当然会自我感觉良好，只要你别让自己过于深入细节。
God did not design human beings in accordance with Christian principles, fascist principles, feminist principles, socialist principles, romantic principles, secular humanist principles, vegetarian principles, deep environmentalist principles, biocentric principles, or libertarian principles. Any of these groups could have told God a thing or two. - jmc 1995
上帝并未按照基督教原则、法西斯原则、女权原则、社会主义原则、浪漫主义原则、世俗人文主义原则、素食主义原则、深度环保主义原则、生物中心原则或者自由意志主义原则来设计人类的。所以上述群体都可以给上帝上上课。
One can persecute with especial complacency if one regards one's victim as a representative of some great malevolent power. - jmc 1995
每个人都可以从迫害他人中获得无与伦比的满足感，只要他将受害者当做某种邪恶力量的代表。
If you want to do good, work on the technology, not on getting power. - jmc 1995
如果你想做点好事，那么请致力于发展技术，不要企图攫取权力。
The politicians have a most touching faith in technology - that it can make up for any dumb thing the politicians decide to do. - jmc 1993
政客们对技术有着一种着魔般的信念，认为技术能帮他们做成任何蠢事，无论有多蠢。
A taste for Ingmar Bergman films is the modern subsitute for attending hangings. - jmc 1994
现在的人喜欢看英格玛·伯格曼的电影，就像从前的人喜欢看绞刑。
An atheist doesn't have to be someone who thinks he has a proof that there can't be a god. He only has to be someone who believes that the evidence on the God question is at a similar level to the evidence on the werewolf question.- jmc 1992
无神论者不必认为自己拥有上帝不可能存在的证据。他只需要相信关于上帝的证据和关于狼人的证据同属一个水平就够了。
Barnum predicted that most psychoanalysts would have a hard time making a living when he said, "There's a sucker born every minute and two to take him." One sucker isn't really enough to support two psychoanalysts. - jmc 1994
当巴纳姆说：“每分钟都有一个傻蛋出生，而且还得有两个傻蛋来照顾他。”这句话预言了大多数精神分析师将难以维生这种状况。对啊，一个傻蛋怎么养得活两个精神分析师嘛。
Asking Terry Eagleton whether he liked a particular book is like asking an entomologist whether he personally liked the beetle he has just finished dissecting. - jmc 1994
让泰瑞·伊格顿回答他是否喜欢某本书就好像问一个昆虫学家是否喜欢刚刚解剖过的那只甲虫。
He who says he will die for a cause will probably lie for it and may kill for it. - jmc
如果一个人说自己愿意为某种事业去死，那么他很可能愿意为这种事业去说谎，并且可能为这种事业杀人。
No-one has yet built a monument so high that a bird can't fly over and shit on it. –jmc
目前还没有任何一座丰碑能高到足以避免一只鸟从它顶上飞过并在上面拉屎。
The peace movement is a great force for peace. Some of the world's most quarrelsome people act out their aggressions through the peace movement. - jmc
和平运动是推动和平的强大助力。一些世上最爱吵架的家伙通过和平运动完成了他们的侵略。
When the policeman quits, each must provide for his own defense. Nuclear proliferation has become more likely. - jmc 1975
如果警察甩手不干了，那每一方都必须设法自保。核扩散的可能性上升了。
Governor Brown says nuclear power is the Vietnam issue of the 1980s. The difference is that if he prevails, the boat people will be Americans. - jmc
布朗州长说，核能问题就相当于80年代的越南问题。区别在于，如果他获胜，投奔怒海的将是美国人。【 译注：《投奔怒海》（Boat People）是1982年上映的一部香港电影，讲美军撤离、南越沦陷后越南人的悲惨状况，以及大批人坐船从海上逃离的经历。 】
To keep the wilderness truly wild, all maps and publications should be suppressed - no more Sierra Club books and calendars. - jmc
为让野生环境保持纯粹野生，所有地图和出版物都应当被叫停——禁止塞拉俱乐部的书籍和行事历。
When architects get prizes, the people suffer. - jmc
设计师获奖，人民就惨了。
Self-righteousness is more dangerous than smoking. - jmc 1983 March
自以为是比吸烟还危险。
Self-righteousness has killed more people than smoking. - jmc 1988 jan
自以为是比烟草杀死的人更多。
During the first three millenia, the Earthmen complained a lot. - jmc
在头三千年中，地球人抱怨连连。
Young tyrants are more genocidal than old tyrants - with the exception of Khomeini.
年轻的暴君比年老的暴君更喜欢种族屠杀——霍梅尼除外。
You say you couldn't live if you thought the world had no purpose. You're saying that you can't form purposes of your own - that you need someone to tell you what to do. The average child has more gumption than that. - jmc before 1983
你说，要是你觉得世界没有目的，你就活不下去。这意味着你无法形成自己的目的——你需要别人告诉你该做什么。普通孩童都比你有进取心。
If everyone were to live for others all the time, life would be like a procession of ants following each other around in a circle. - jmc before 1983
如果每个人每时每刻都为他人而活，那么生活将会像头尾相随的一群蚂蚁一样不停绕圈子。
He's a man of principle. He'd cut his mother's throat for a principle. - jmc before 1983
他是有原则的男人。他会为了原则而割断他母亲的喉咙。
As Marx should have said, the principle of communism is From each according to what he can't get out of doing. To each according to whom he knows. - jmc dec 1983
马克思可能会说，共产主义的原则是，各尽所不能，各取所知。
It is deplorable that many people think that the best way to improve the world is to forbid something. However, they're morally more advanced than the people who think the best way to improve the world is to kill somebody. jmc, 1984 March
许多人认为，让这个世界变好的最好办法是去禁止一些事情，这真是可悲可叹。然而，和那些认为最好办法是杀人的人相比，这些人的道德更加高尚。
If Jesus were here today, he'd be a real revolutionary. Do you mean there'd be twice as many boat people? jmc, 1984 Aug.
如果耶稣活在今天，那他会是个真正的革命者。你是说将会有两倍的难民吗？
That's not a book; it's a core dump. jmc 1984 aug, after Paul Heckel.
这不是一本书，这是个核心转储。读Paul Heckel有感。
You say the only alternative to nuclear war is world government. There is only one possibility worse than nuclear war for the survival of modern civilization, and that is world government. Civilization might recover from the damage of a nuclear war, but judging by past static empires in Egypt and China, it might never recover from world government, there being no chance of external intervention. As it is, present governments are only prevented from becoming dominated by crazy ideas that will suppress all opposition by the existence of other governments. The only way a people can be sure that their government is substandard is that it does worse than those of other countries.
你说唯一可以避免核战争的方法是建立世界政府。只有一种可能性比核战争对现代文明的生存更加危险，那就是世界政府。文明也许能从核战争的破坏中恢复，但是从过去中国和埃及的静态帝国看来，人类文明将很有可能无法从世界政府中恢复，因为它将没有获得外部干预的机会。正如现在，目前的政府之所以可以免于被“压制所有反对意见”这样疯狂念头所支配，只不过是因为有许多其他政府的存在。让一个民族能够准确判断他们的政府没有达标的唯一方法，就是当他们发现自己的政府比其他国家做得差的时候。
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