ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

唇亡齒寒

Share a common fate;  Lips and teeth relationship

Today is Good Friday.  I probably shouldn't introduce a rude phrase.  But, what the hell, learning knows no bounds.  By the way, I am not a Christian nor am I a Buddhist; though I do believe in Buddhism.  

Anyway, back to the subject.  While I was watching a movie, I came across this slang "talk to the hand".  It is used to say in a rude way to tell someone that you do not wish to listen to what they have to say and that they may as well stop. 

Nail in the coffin:  something that brings one closer to a seemingly unavoidable negative outcome.  "the last nail in the coffin" or "another nail in the coffin":  equivalent to "the last straw". 最後一根稻草；使人最終崩潰的一擊

His infidelity is another nail in the coffin to end his marriage.

Knock on wood   = 老天保佑

When we don't want something bad to happen, we knock on wood to ward off impending bad luck and to assure that good luck will continue. 

Almost another 2 years have passed from my last entry.  Sorry, I am getting lazier and lazier as I get older.  

By the way, I was watching a korean movie:  The Con Artist, with English subtitles and came across this idiom “by the skin of one’s teeth”, which means barely, by a narrow margin, just in time, 差一點點就不成 , 險勝

For Example:

French Proverb:  While the dogs growled at each other, the wolves devoured the sheep. 

鶴蚌相爭，漁翁得利

While the dogs growled at each other, the wolves devoured the sheep.

Some interesting quotes around proof and evidence:

Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

African Proverb:

When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.

You must eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Just for fun.  Phrases using body parts or sort of.

嫉妒

"得知所要, 享之所得" (To get what you want.  To enjoy what you get.)

洛根.皮爾薩爾.史密斯 (Logan Pearsall Smith) 名言原文

小心自已的願望，因為它可能應驗在自已身上

愛默森名言原文

Be careful what you set your heart upon, for you will surely have it.

Le rire, c’est le soleil; il chasse l’hiver du visage humain (French)

English Translation:

白糖上面澆蜂蜜，蜂蜜上面蓋白糖

This is from William Shakespeare “As you Like it”, Act III, scene iii.

(1) 泰勒：科學管理不容許一隻會唱歌的鳥不唱歌。

Frederick Winslow Taylor: "Scientific Management has no place for a bird that can sing, and won't sing,"

一種近乎懶惰的沉穩,一直是我們投資風格的基石 - 巴菲特名言
Lethargy, bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style. – Warren Buffett.

當別人貪婪時 您要恐懼..... 當別人恐懼時 您要貪婪

I will start to compile some of my quotes here.  I believe they were not spoken by others prior to me.  If someone else did say something similar or the same, I will have to say great minds think alike.  Anyway, if you see these spoken somewhere else, please let me know.  I am trying to build a legacy of my own, starting from providing some of my words of wisdom.

馬克吐溫  Mark Twain

An average English word is four letters and a half. By hard, honest labor I've dug all the large words out of my vocabulary and shaved it down till the average is three and a half. . . . I never write metropolis for seven cents, because I can get the same money for city. I never write policeman, because I can get the same price for cop. . . . I never write valetudinarian at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents; I wouldn't do it for fifteen. – By Mark Twain

一個英文詞彙平均是四個半字。努力的,我將我的詞彙減至三個半.

Auguste Rodin’s Quote

藝術大師 羅丹 名言

事情沒有好壞之分，只是看你自己意願為何

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so