“If you can't be good, be careful" nghĩa là gì?

“If you can't be good, be careful” = nếu không tốt thì hãy cẩn thận -> (lời cảnh báo) nghĩa là nếu làm điều xấu xa hay trái đạo đức thì phải đảm bảo nó không nguy hiểm hoặc phải bí mật. Đôi khi cũng được dùng để nói tạm biệt một cách khiếm nhã.

Ví dụ

Somebody bade me farewell with the cliche: “Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do”, laughing hysterically before following it up with the side-splitting, “If you can’t be good, be careful”. Oh, tee bloody hee. Golly gosh, I hadn’t heard that one before.

There are messages, of a sort, and they are essentially those of the original: Be true to yourself, be true to your friends, be true to your school, be good and if you can’t be good be careful and, the new series would add, if you can’t be careful be rich. “Having money can make you act like a jerk,” Mac tells Daisy, “but fortunately you can just use more money to clean up the mess you made. It’s the circle of wealth …. You look conflicted. Let me give you some money.”

Mauro was a soft-spoken man of few words, however, those words were mighty and wise. His sage wisdom included, “Be good. If you can't be good, be careful”, and “Behind the clouds, the sun is still shining”. He was generous to a fault with his time and energy and rarely accepted much deserved accolades (sự ôm hôn). He showed his love for others by doing and serving. His mission to feed anyone within his reach is legendary, as are his recipes for adobo, pork broccoli, and the infamous fish head soup.

Bài trước: "Far it from be" nghĩa là gì?