Михаил Веллер (Mikhail Weller) - Aphorisms from the works
He spoke English like a typical Soviet engineer, a little better than a monkey but much worse than an Eskimo.
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It gave her honor, but it didn't give her back the honor that she lost in acquiring this experience?
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They ate and drank for free. It's good to be a stool pigeon.
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An academic (once?) said, breathless with courage: "Only over my dead body". He was told that this is not the biggest obstacle.
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Love and death are beautiful of course, but they are nothing compared to a bathroom in the moment you need one.
<em>[As your text is poetic, it's a challenge to correct it while keeping the original meaning. I wasn't sure about the sentence about "honour". It needs re-writing and my correction might change the meaning too much. "Acquiring this experience" doesn't sound too natural but I couldn't think how to improve it. Kudos for your effort to write poetic English, Michael</em>]