Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Do not write so that your words may be understood, but write so that your must be understood.
The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is as great as that between lightning and the lightning bug.

Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is for life.

(Believe it or not, opticall illusion can cut highway accidents. Japan is a case in point.)

“我现在是和尚打伞，无发无天”（1965，毛主席）
I＇m a solitary monk walking in the rain with a tattered umbrella.
（“撑了顶破伞，在雨里，踽踽独行”？毛主席正处于黄昏心态了？才不，他正准备发动文革呢！
monk  第一是无发的，The Buddhist monk is hairless and hairlessness in pronunciation is similar to lawlessness；第二是无天，because the umbrella separates my head from the sky，sky这里是指authority，就是我既不服从法律，也不服从任何一个权威。）

上海人精明而不聪明
People of Shanghai are clever but not wise.（可以）
People of Shanghai are penny wise but pound－foolish.（更好）

you may run，but you can never hide（布什针对恐怖主义发表的言论）
你跑得了和尚，跑不了庙（在中国可以）
你们可以逃亡，但躲是躲不掉的。（符合美国文化的翻译）

-- (holding a birthday present) Happy birthday!
-- From you? （你送的？）

Abraham Lincoln used to say that : The government
Of The People
By The People
For The People
will never die.
译文：亚伯拉罕·林肯说过，
民有
民治
民享
的政府永不会消亡。

The first glass for thirst, the second for nourishment, the third for pleasure, and the fourth for madness.
一杯可解渴，二杯能滋补，三杯乐融融，四杯耍酒疯。

Well, seriously, （言归正传）I really ...
harder （用力点）