To err is human

To err is human. To blame the other guy is even more human.
犯错是人之常情，但是推卸责任更是人之本性。
Common sense is not all that common.
常识往往并不常见。
Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?
既然找到了合理的借口，又何必再说出真相呢？
These three popular misquotes（戏谑的引语）are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot
about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems
that most people don't want to accept the responsibility for having made a mistake. They
naturally look for someone else who could be responsible for the problem. Perhaps it is the
natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this:
forgive, divine (神圣的).
mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite—find someone else to pass the blame on to.
however, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a mark of great maturity.
以上三句谚语虽然像是笑话，但却说出了人们的 本性。我们虽然常常犯错，但是大家却并
不愿承担犯错的后果。人们总是会不自觉地将问题的责任推卸给 其他人，这也许是人之常
情。有关人性的最早谚语是这样说的：“犯错是人之常情，能原谅别人的错误， 你就是圣
人了”。这句谚语的原本含义是我们应该原谅他人犯下的错误，但实际上往往相反，我们
总是想把犯错的责任推卸给他人。其实，勇于承认错误和承担后果，才是我们成熟的标志。

Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good
general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common
sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home
when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common
for large organizations, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in
charge of everything. People say that in a large company,
the left hand is doing.
常识就 是清晰的思维。具备常识意味着对如何做好工作有一个大致的计划，并按计划行事。
常识告诉我们，下雨 天就应该带伞，而晴天就不必了。但是在一个大公司里，常识却并不
常见，因为大公司里的事情太多了， 一个人很难掌控所有的局面。人们常说在大公司里：
“右手”常常不知道“左手”在做些什么。

And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a
work of art? One of common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young
people, get the idea that it's okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary (直接
推论) to that: if a good excuse is
truth?
对于一个把推卸责任当作工作艺术的社会，到底会有什么样的问题呢？问题在于 人们尤其
是年轻人，认为偶尔撒谎并不算什么问题。这样我们就可以得到这样的推论：如果谎言也
可以当作借口，那么谁还在意真相是什么呢？