K. R. Norman 語錄

K. R. Norman (1925-2020) 是巴利文獻學的偉大學者。

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1. 「巴利學」未來的必要任務為「尚未做的，必需要做；已經做的，還要再做」。(What has not been done needs to be done, and what has been done needs to be done again.) 

帖主認為此一敘述對華語佛教世界的巴利文獻也完全適用：「尚未翻譯的『經、律、論』及其『註』、『疏』、『又疏』應趕快翻譯，已經譯出的巴利文獻應該重新翻譯」。 

2. 「因此所有我說過的關於文獻學成就的話，我的每一個建議，以及其他學者的所有意見，永遠都需要重新審視，以便察看新的證據是否有助於證實或反駁這些已被提出來的論點。」 

So everything that I have said about the achievements of philology, every suggestion I have made, and all the suggestions of other scholars, all need to be kept permanently under review to see if new evidence can help to prove or disprove what has been proposed. 

3. 「我將再重複一遍，我的意見是：任何人如果對相關的佛教語言沒有良好的掌握能力，在初期佛教或任何佛教範圍都不會作出有價值的原創研究。」 

I will repeat myself, and say again that, in my opinion, no worthwhile original work on early Buddhism, perhaps any sort of Buddhism, can be done by anyone who does not have a good grasp of the relevant languages.