這句英文到底是什麼意思呢?

[Michael-liu]

"The difficulty with marriage is that we fall in love with a personality, but must live with a character."

What exactly does the above quote about marriage mean or imply?

What is the proper Chinese translation of it?

Michael

[Johnie]

應該是說：婚姻的癥結點在於我們相愛於彼此的優點，但卻必須相處抑或是忍受於彼此的缺點。

personality : someone's character, especially the way they behave towards other people

character: the combination of qualities that makes someone a particular kind of person, for example a good or bad, honest or dishonest person

[refer to Longman dictionary]

[Kat C]

"Personality" and "character", when contrasted with each other, cover two very different aspects of an individual.

"Personality" refers to a collection of personal traits that can be subjective in terms of their likability (some enjoy "quiet" people while others do "conversational") and that do not carry a real standard (how "outgoing" is really "outgoing, and when does it become "wild"?)

"Character", on the other hand, usually means a set of universally admired qualities that a good person should possess, such as "honesty", "conscience", "work ethic", etc.

A cheerful, friendly person can also be a cheater. So someone with a pleasant "personality" doesn't necessarily have good character.

This well-quoted remark by comedian Peter De Vries is saying that, we sometimes marry someone with a "personality" we like, such as "polite", "humorous", or "creative", but soon find that sharing a life with someone involves a lot more than just attraction. A person's moral "character" will determine if they can do the right things and make the right choices, especially when the times are tough.

To translate this into Chinese is kind of tricky. I'd probably say, "婚姻的難處在於我們愛上的是對方的性格，然而必須相伴一生的卻是他的人格。"

Kat