“Nous causerons sans nous ecouter, c’est le meilleur moyen de s’entendre.”
“We will talk without listening to each other; that is the best way to arrive at an understanding.”
“Nous convenons de nos defauts,
Mais c’est pour que l’on nous demente.”
“For this alone we do admit
Our faults, that others may deny them.”
“Nous craignons quasi toujours des maux qui perdent ce nom par le
changement de nos pensées et de nos inclinations.”
“We are nearly always dreading evils which eventually cease to merit the
name, owing to changes in our own views and inclinations.”
“Nous donnons aisement ce qui n’est plus a nous.”
“We freely give what is no longer ours.”
“Nous jugeons le passe selon la justice, le present selon nos interets.”
“We judge the past by the light of justice, the present by the light of our interests.”
“Nous mirons nos affections
Au miroir de nos passions.
Qui sont les faces de nous deux.”
“Our affection plainly we
In our passion’s mirrors see,
And those mirrors are oiu" eyes.”
“Nous ne manquons jamais d’argent pour nos caprices, nous ne discutons que le prix des choses utiles ou nécessaires.”
“We never want money for our caprices; we only haggle over the price of what is useful or necessary.”
“Nous ne desirerions guére de choses avec ardeur, si nous connaissions parfaitement ce que nous desirons.”
“There are but few things that we should ardently desire, if we knew exactly what we were desiring.”
“Nous ne pouvons arracher une seule page de notre vie, mais nous pouvons Jeter le livre au feu.”
“We cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book upon the fire.”
II
