About a guest surrounded by men at one of her parties ...
Dorothy Parker:
“That woman can speak eighteen languages and she can't say "no" in one of them.”
Parker
(1983 - 1967) was an American writer best known for here caustic wit
and fabulous one liners. She was one of the founder members of the
Algonquin Round Table - a circle or writers famed for their bitchiness.
Although she survived three marriages and a number of suicide attempts
she later became heavily reliant on alcohol. Although at the time she
deplored her fame as being simply a "wisecracker" many of her best
lines have survived to this day.
Mrs. Patrick Campbell:
Do you know why God withheld the sense of humour from women? That we may love you instead of laugh at you.”
Campbell (1865 - 1940) was a British actress who retained the name from her first marriage even after marrying for the second time. Most notably she was the first person EVER to play the role of Eliza Doolittle in the play Pygmalion (later to be made in to the musical My Fair Lady”). This was despite the fact that she was 49 at the time - George Bernard Shaw wrote the part for her. Not that he was in any way repaying a favour - Frank Harris said of Shaw that he was “The first man to have cut a swathe through the theatre and left it strewn with virgins”.
Max Beerbohm
“You will find that the woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who has failed to inspire sympathy in men.”
Beerbohm (1872 - 1956) was an English parodist and was part of the Oscar Wilde set of the late nineteenth century. He was greatly in demand on the dinner party circuit but was a victim of the very milieu in which he had made his name. By his thirties he was no longer considered a wit - "nothing special, in fact a bit of a bore" to paraphrase ABBA. He regained some measure of his early success with the advent of radio broadcasting - but was popular amongst the working rather than upper classes.
Mae West
“I used to be Snow White… but I drifted.”
The woman who famously never said “come up and see me some time”, West was made famous by her own risqué reputation and her uncanny ability to see a double entendre almost anywhere. Starting in Vaudeville she moved to Hollywood and appeared in numerous films. She returned to the stage in later life when the cinema roles dried up and even had a go at recording a few rock and roll albums.
Rudyard Kipling
“A Woman is only a woman
But a good cigar is a smoke.”
Kipling (1865 - 1936) was born in India and much of his famous work is set there. The Jungle Book is by far his best known work, thanks to it's, ahem, reworking by Walt Disney. For much of the latter part of the twentieth century his reputation had suffered at the hands of persons of a politically correct nature who have accused him of being a standard bearer of British imperialism. He is, however, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Indeed, he was the first English language author to receive the prize, so ya boo sucks to all the PC folk!
Charlotte Whitton
“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Fortunately, this is not difficult.”
Whitton (1896 - 1975) was in many ways a woman born before her time and one wonders how well she would have done in life had she been born a century later, so remarkable are her achievements. In 1951 she became the first woman to be made Mayor of a major Canadian city. Whitton dismissed a new design for the flag of Canada as a "white badge of surrender, waving three dying maple leaves". Although ahead of her time she had to hide her lesbianism, something which was not revealed until 1999. Certainly, there would have been no way for an openly lesbian woman to run for public office in the 1950s, such was the discriminatory nature of time.
Walt Disney
“Girls bored me - they still do. I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I've ever known.”
Disney (1901 - 1966) was a hugely innovative and influential animator, winning twenty six Academy Awards for his work. He lost the rights to an early cartoon character - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and determined to create a new character to which he would hold all rights. He based his new character on a pet mouse he once had, scribbled out a character that would become Mickey Mouse, and the rest as they say is history. After dying of Lung Cancer his body was frozen using the new science of Cryonics. So, he may come back and give us some new characters to laugh at. One wonders what he would make of Ratatouille.
Noel Coward
“Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs.”
Coward (1899 - 1973) made his entrance in to society early. At the ripe old age of 14 he became the lover of a painter called Philip Streatfield and joined a society salon run by a Mrs Cooper. He lived on her property but in the farm house rather than the hall because he was from a lower social order (despite the fact most people recall him as "posh" these days!). He was homosexual - but certainly not gay - and hated the "scene" with a vengeance. He wrote over 50 plays, so at least we can safely say he was "theatrical".
Florynce Kennedy
“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”
Kennedy (1916 - 2000) founded the Feminist Party in 1970. She did get married, but wasn't keen, saying of it “Why would you lock yourself in the bathroom just because you have to go three times a day?” Very much a feminist she once remarked that if men could get pregnant, then abortion would be a sacrament. She was one of the most remarkable black American women of the twentieth century - and one who was difficult to forget. She often wore a cowboy hat with pink sunglasses!
William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
“I would rather trust a Fleming with my butter, Parson Hugh the
Welshman with my cheese, and Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, or a
thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself.”
The man, the guy, the immortal bard, Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) heaped a whole pile of scorn on women in his plays. To be fair to him, he poured a whole heap on many people, male and female alike. He is, however, known for leaving his wife only the second best bed in his will. Many people see this as a final, dashing insult but others think that it was probably the marital bed - and so then something which may have had some good memories at least to the long suffering Ann Hathaway
译文:
关于女人的十句至理名言
在Dorothy Parker举办的一场宴会中，有一个女人被一大群男人包围着......
Dorothy Parker :
“那个女人会讲18种语言，却无法用其中任何一种说‘不’。”
Parker（1893-1967）①是一位美国作家，最引人注目的是她敏锐的才智跟超乎想象的俏皮话才能。她是那个由作家组成因其尖酸刻薄而闻名的阿耳冈昆部族圆桌会议团的创始人之一。尽管成功的克服了三次失败的婚姻跟一连串自杀企图，但到最后她还是变得极度酒精依赖。尽管当时她痛恨自己的名声仅仅是一个“俏皮话作者”，但很多名句依然流传至今。
Patrick Campbell 女士：
“你知道上帝为什么没有给女人幽默感吗？那样的话，我们就可以爱你们，而不是笑你们。”
Campbell（1865-1940）是一位英国演员，她在与第二任丈夫结婚以后还保留着第一任丈夫的姓氏。最著名的事迹是她是历史上第一位扮演戏剧皮格马利翁（后来被改编成了音乐片我的美丽女士）②中Eliza Doolittle的人。事实是尽管当时她已经49岁了，但萧伯纳还是为她写了这个角色。这倒不是他在以某种方式回报某种好处——Frank Harris在说起肖伯纳时称他是“横扫戏剧界却为其留下无数处女之身的第一人”。
Max Beerbohm：
“你会发现对狗非常友善的女人往往对男人无法产生同情心。”
Beerbohm（1872-1956）是一位英国幽默作家，并且在19世纪末期是奥斯卡·王尔德组织的一员。他广受当时晚宴聚会的欢迎，但是这个使他成名的场合也葬送了他。在他30岁的时候已经不再被认为有才华——“没有什么特别的，事实上有点讨人厌。”ABBA这样阐述到。他因为广播节目的出现而重新赢回了他早年的一些成功，但却是在工人阶级中流行而不是上流社会。
Mae West
“我过去曾经是白雪公主......但是我堕落了。”
这个著名的女人重来不说“有时间过来看我”，West 因她不太好的名声跟在任何场合都能创造双关语的神奇能力而著名。从滑稽喜剧开始她步入好莱坞并且出现在无数的电影当中。在后期因为电影角色的匮乏她再次回到舞台，甚至还尝试制作了一些摇滚专辑。
Rudyard Kipling
“女人就是女人，但是一支好雪茄却可以用来品尝。”
Kipling（1865-1936）出生在印度，他很多著名的作品也是那里产生的。《森林王子》是迄今他最著名的作品，这应当感谢华特迪斯尼的重新创作。在20世纪后期的大部分时间里他的名誉受到政治正统派别的打击，他们认为Kipling是英国帝国主义的忠实信徒。他事实上是历史上最年轻的诺贝尔文学奖的获得者。实际上他也是第一个取得这个奖项的英文作家，所以ya boo玩弄了所有网友。
Charlotte Whitton
“无论女人们做什么事情都要做的比男人好两倍才能使人们觉得只做到了男人的一半，不过幸运的是，这并不是什么难事。”
Whitton（1896-1975）是一个超越时代出生的女人，人们都会好奇的想象假如晚出生一个世纪，她会建立怎样的丰功伟绩，因为她生前的成就是那样举世瞩目。在1951年她成为加拿大一个主要城市的市长。Whitton否决了一款新式加拿大国旗的设计——“挥舞着三片快死枫树叶子的投降者的白色徽章。” 在前期她必须隐藏她的同性恋身份，并且直到1999年也没有被公众察觉。当然，在1950年那个时期是不可能让一个同性恋女人来掌控一个政府部门的，这是当时歧视态度的必然。
Walt Disney
“女孩们让我感到无聊——她们至始至终都是如此。我爱米老鼠胜过任何我所知道的女人。”
Disney（1901-1966）是一位具有改革精神跟巨大影响力的卡通作家，他的作品曾经获得了26次学院奖。他因为失去了一个早期卡通人物——幸运兔子Oswald的著作权而决定重新创作一个新的卡通人物。新形象的构思源于他曾经养过的一只宠物老鼠，画好草稿之后就是现在的Mickey Mouse，并永久载入史册。在死于肺癌之后他的身体被最新的人体冷冻技术封藏。所以他有可能回来给我们创作出新的搞笑角色。人们想象如果是他的话会怎样创作料理鼠王。
Noel Coward
“有些女人必须像锣一样经常敲打。”
Coward（1899-1973）进入社会非常早。在14高龄就爱上了一个叫Philip Streatfield的画家，并且加入了一家由Cooper女士运营的社会美术馆。他依靠财产过活，但是是在农场而不是公寓，因为他出身自下层社会（尽管有很多人回想起他都认为他在那个年代是时髦的！）。他是同性恋主义者——但却不是同性恋——并且憎恨两派相互攻击的状况。他一生创作了50多个剧本，所以我们可以大胆的称他为剧作家。
Florynce Kennedy
“一个没有男人的女人就像是一条没有自行车的鱼。”
Kennedy（1916-2000）在1970创建了女权党。她没有结婚，也不渴望婚姻，她说：“只是因为你每天要用三次洗手间就把自己锁在浴室里么？” 作为一个女权主义者她一次声称如果男人可以怀孕的话，那么流产就会像洗礼一样神圣。她是20世纪最受人瞩目的黑人女性之一——而且是其中最令人难忘的一个。她经常戴一顶牛仔帽再配上粉红色的太阳镜！
William Shakespeare ，《温莎的风流娘们》
"我可以相信猫儿不会偷荤，我可以相信我们那位威尔士牧师休师傅不爱吃干酪，我可以把我的烧酒瓶交给一个爱尔兰人，我可以让一个小偷把我的马儿拖走，可是我不能放心让我的妻子一个人待在家里"
这个男人，这个家伙，不朽的诗人莎士比亚（1564-1616）在他的剧本里无数次攻击了女性。公平点说，他攻击了许许多多的人，其中既包括男人也包括女人。众所周知他在遗嘱里只给妻子留下了家里的一张床，还不是最好的那张。许多人认为这是一个终极的无情的嘲讽，但是有些人认为这是象征婚姻的床，在Ann Hathaway 漫长的婚姻煎熬生活中或许代表了一些幸福的回忆。
译者注：
①原文1983-1967显然是错误的，查找相关资料应该是1893-1967 。
②皮格马利翁，我的美丽女士中文译名均为窈窕淑女