what makes life dreary is the want of motive 的翻译

可以这样理解：对于目的的渴望，使得生活暗淡无光。这说明，你仍然没有找到目的（标），所以很盲目，所以生活暗淡，如果你找到了目的（标）了，生活就不暗淡了。

这句话我觉得译得很巧，很符合中国习惯。

原句是很对的，用西方人的思维思考一下就很容易理解了，直译过来应该是这样的：令生活黯淡无光的是希望找到动力（目的）。也就是说，想要动力或目的，其实就是还没有动力或目的，如果有了，也就不用want了，生活也就不会dreary了。

呵呵，毕竟是Eliot的话啊，就是有水平，呵呵

没有了目的，人生便暗淡无光

“What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.” George Eliot

Belows are the real meaning of this phrase:-

Are you where you want to be? Doing what you want to be doing? Spending time with the people you want to be with? Feeling fulfilled? Motivated? Are you happy that you are using your talents and potential to the full? How is the future looking? What kind of things are you doing now to affect your future journey in a positive way?

There is no point in having energy and feeling motivated, if you don’t have focus. Lack of focus makes you frustrated, angry, even depressed. You need to have a purpose which will create motives to guide you.

Our purpose and motivation create our thrust - the reason why we do what we do and, just like thrust, our purpose creates our movement forward towards our objective. Expectations lead to attitudes; attitudes to behaviour and behaviour leads to consequences and results.

我觉得这样做应该就是为了精简吧，英语不是最怕啰嗦吗？名言都这样。