Translation of Thoughts

A long time ago I decided to collect certain sentences. In my computer I started a list which I called ‘Thoughts’ because I was interested in sentences expressing thoughts. Not thoughts from myself but thoughts said or written by no matter who. I decided to put in the list all kind of thoughts providing I just liked them. I took no specific theme or subject for selecting 'my’ thoughts. Some of them have well known authors. Others have not. Even a few are anonymous.

I never intended to gather those thoughts according to a consistent political, philosophical or just vital line. There’s one and only one common denominator in my ‘Thoughts’ collection. I like them all. I currently have some 350 thoughts.

I ‘thought’ it would be an interesting English exercise for me to translate a few of them. That might be not so easy since some of the Thoughts use language related to abstract concepts and/or short sentences with deep complex meaning. Here is a sample of my collection after my English translation (My original list is written only in Castillian or Catalan). I would highly appreciate your comments on how the following translations 'sound'.

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Creativity is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. (Thomas A. Edison)

Our big mistake is trying to get from every individual the virtues he/she hasn’t got. However we neglect developing the virtues individuals have got. (Margerite Yourcenar)


Some men fight one day. They are good men. Some fight one year. They are better men. Some fight many years. They are much better men. But some fight all their lives: those are essential men. (Bertold Brecht)


The difference between what we do and what we could do would be enough to overcome most world’s problems. (Gahdhi)


Every language is a source of culture and the extinction of one language –which is a mankind’s heritage- is the failure of all societies. (Isabel-Clara Simó)


Some loves in life just can’t be forgotten,
undeletable times our heart keeps forever,
cause something that made us shiver of joy
can’t be replaced at present by a new love. (Julio Gutierrez)


The world has changed much more in the last one-hundred years than in any previous century. The reasons for that have not been the politics or economics new ideas but the fundamental developments fostered by the progress of the basic sciences. (Stephen Hawking)


Imposing is nonsense. Convincing is glorious. (Victor Hugo)


Forget Gods, Religions and Death. You are living in this life: be happy by administering its pleasures. (Epicure, IV BC)


Mediocrity is always a thread to us. We should beat it. If we don’t like our life we should improve it or give it a new dimension. (Kenzaburo Oé)

I can’t believe I’m getting a decoration. I thought one should be driving tanks or wining wars to get such a thing. (John Lenon)


The word ‘progress’ has no meaning while there might be unhappy children. (Albert Einstein)

If you don’t want to get replaced by a machine do not behave like one of them. . (Arno Penzias)
[Penzias is a physicist who together with his colleague, Wilson, hey detected a faint low radiation in the Universe that proved the Big-Bang hypothesis. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1978]


A weak mind is like a microscope: it enlarges trivial things but can’t see the big ones. (Lord Chesterfield)

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Two Greeks (in Parthenon’s times) are discussing. It’s good we don’t know their names. Their discussion is on an abstract subject. Sometimes they refer to myths which they don’t believe. They don’t argue. And they don’t either want to persuade each other nor to be persuaded by the other. To win or lose is out of their scope.

They agree in just one thing. They know that discussion is the impossible path to reach truth. Since they are free from the myth or the metaphor, they do think or they do try to think.

That discussion between two unknown men somewhere in Greece is an essential fact of our history. They forgot the prayer and the magic. (Jorge Luís Borges)
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How old am I? Age doesn’t exist: everyone decides what age is willing to have. (Giovanni Reale)


Raise your son/daughter with a bit of hunger and a bit of cold. (Chinese proverb)


If you’re able to measure what you’re talking about, if you can say that by means of a number, then you may think you know something. . (William Thompson, known as Lord Kelvin)


God helps those who help themselves. (Charles Chaplin)


I got the feeling of living in a stupid world where it is only expected from you to buy many things and have grandchildren who will buy many things too. (Mario Camus)


Beauty depend one half on the scenery and one half on who contemplates it. (Lin Yutang)

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Translation #1

The worst thing some people ignore
is they are ignorants.

Translation #2 (more straight forward from original)

The worst thing some people do not know
is they do not know.

(Adolfo Bioy Casares -terrible statement-)
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Happiness is made of little things. A little mansion, a little yatch, a little fortune… (Grouxo Marx) [Do you, Felicity, own the same sort of ‘littles’?]


What makes a true intelligence is the ability to deal with contradictory facts. (Scott Fitzgerald)


I adore Mankind though people make me feel bursting. (Susanita, Mafalda’s friend)

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