7. Cruel to Be Kind: 要想善良,必先残忍;忠言逆耳
How Shakespeare used it:
"I must be cruel only to be kind; / Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind," says the tormented Hamlet. He has just mistakenly killed Polonius, and it's clear that he doesn't know how bad things are going to get. (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
饱受折磨的哈姆雷特说:“要想善良,必先残忍,坏事开了头,更糟糕的还在后面。”他刚刚误杀了波洛尼厄斯,而且很明显他根本不知道事情会糟糕到什么程度。(《哈姆雷特》,第3幕第4场)
现代例句:
"The government has portrayed the cull [of 400 kangaroos] as a necessary case of being cruel to be kind, but the international focus has been mostly on the cruelty." — Tim Johnston, New York Times, Mar. 14, 2008