le beau, le bon, le bien

English translation: ... what looks right, feels right and seems right.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:le beau, le bon, le bien
English translation:... what looks right, feels right and seems right.
Entered by: SafeTex

10:19 Jul 25, 2020
French to English translations [PRO]
Psychology / Making changes to our lives
French term or phrase: le beau, le bon, le bien
Hello

I'm hoping the moderator will let this through as one phrase and not three separate questions

I have:

L’inspiration générée par la créativité permet d’élever nos standards, sinon on reste dans ***le beau, le bon, le bien.***

Obviously, it's not the individual words that puzzle me but finding a nice expression in English like in the Clint Eastwood film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (except that doesn't work here of course :)

And also the fact that resting in "le beau, le bon, le bien" is actually a bit negative here

Can anyone help please and thanks in advance as always

PS there is no prior context that really helps other than what i've given
SafeTex
France
Local time: 21:45
... what looks good, feels good and seems good.
Explanation:
You could introduce this with 'we're left with...' for a slightly disparaging tone.

GCSE English: repetition of 'good' to reflect the 'b-' alliteration.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2020-07-25 11:53:06 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

*Erratum

'we're stuck with ...'
Selected response from:

Thomas Miles
France
Local time: 21:45
Grading comment
used a variant of your suggestion: "otherwise we are merely left with what looks right, feels right and seems right"
as "something can look right" etc. but be wrong as suggested in the French ST.
Hope you don't mind that I changed your suggestion before entering it into the glossary
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +4the comfort of mediocrity
Suzie Withers
4 +2... what looks good, feels good and seems good.
Thomas Miles
3 +1your comfortable rut
Nicky Over
5 -1The Beautiful, the Good, the Right
Ismaël Kouddane
4the happy balance
Katarina Peters
3Nice non-entities
Margaret Morrison
3platitudes
Marco Solinas
3run-of-the-mill self-help notions/ideas
Mpoma
Summary of reference entries provided
fwiw/hth
writeaway

Discussion entries: 9





  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Nice non-entities


Explanation:
Not sure there's a comparable expression so maybe something alliterative like "nice non-entities", or "same old superficials" or "do-able but dull"...?

Margaret Morrison
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:45
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
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19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
your comfortable rut


Explanation:
Not as attractive as the original phrase, but how about "...without it, you stay stuck in your comfortable rut"?

Nicky Over
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:45
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Thomas Miles: I really think we can at least try to hit some more of the semantic concepts in the original phase!
1 hr

agree  philgoddard
2 hrs

agree  Verginia Ophof
3 hrs
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30 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): -1
The Beautiful, the Good, the Right


Explanation:
"La Beauté" is related to beauty, it's the easiest to translate. "La Bonté" can be linked to human quality, kindness, to be in a process of generosity with others. "Le Bien" can be linked to what is just and moral, or what is of good quality. The way these three terms are followed is mainly used in philosophy and psychology. So "le Bien" has a moral value. That is why its translation will tend towards the Right.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 36 mins (2020-07-25 10:55:42 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

It's an important psychological concept here. It may be negative, but it must be translated fully. If we tried to find a different sentence it is as if we put "my person" instead of "Superego", or "what we are not conscious of" instead of "the Unconscious".


    https://m.marabout.com/beau-bien-bon-9782501112253
Ismaël Kouddane
Morocco
Local time: 20:45
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in FrenchFrench

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Nicky Over: I think it's really a nice phrase that's needed here, not translations for the individual words.
11 mins
  -> Translation isn't always about nice phrases but meaning.

disagree  Thomas Miles: Unfortunately 'the [adj.]' in English refers to 'people who are [adj.]'.
1 hr
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +4
the comfort of mediocrity


Explanation:
or comfortable mediocrity

Just a thought

Suzie Withers
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:45
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: yes, would work IMO
35 mins
  -> Thanks Yvonne :)

agree  philgoddard: Perfect!
1 hr
  -> Thanks Phil :)

disagree  Ismaël Kouddane: That expression is far too violent for this idea. This concept represents the values that we think are important, those on which we base our lives and which determine our vision of the world. Although it can be questioned, it's not the idea in French.
2 hrs
  -> There is nothing violent about my suggestion, although you are welcome of course to disagree with it

agree  Verginia Ophof
2 hrs
  -> Thank you :)

agree  Nikki Scott-Despaigne: Or even, if the context permits, "within our comfort zone".
2 hrs
  -> Yes, I agree that could work too - thanks :)

agree  liz askew
1 day 4 hrs
  -> Thank you, Liz :)
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
... what looks good, feels good and seems good.


Explanation:
You could introduce this with 'we're left with...' for a slightly disparaging tone.

GCSE English: repetition of 'good' to reflect the 'b-' alliteration.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2020-07-25 11:53:06 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

*Erratum

'we're stuck with ...'

Thomas Miles
France
Local time: 21:45
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 3
Grading comment
used a variant of your suggestion: "otherwise we are merely left with what looks right, feels right and seems right"
as "something can look right" etc. but be wrong as suggested in the French ST.
Hope you don't mind that I changed your suggestion before entering it into the glossary

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Nikki Scott-Despaigne: Interesting take. I like the balance of the three retined from the original.
2 hrs
  -> Thank you.

agree  Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
9 hrs
  -> Thanks!
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
platitudes


Explanation:
"...at the level of platitudes..."
Something of the sort may work. ".motherhood and apple pie.." may also work depending on the overall context.

Marco Solinas
Local time: 12:45
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in ItalianItalian
PRO pts in category: 4
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
the happy balance


Explanation:
another suggestion

Katarina Peters
Canada
Local time: 15:45
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in HungarianHungarian, Native in EnglishEnglish
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1 day 6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
run-of-the-mill self-help notions/ideas


Explanation:
I say this having read the discussion, and your post where you say what kind of text we're about.

I can't really see why you didn't say (a lot) more about the text when you posted the question. My first thought was that this was some sort of upbeat corporate marketing drivel, i.e. "we must stand out from the crowd of the averagely competent" or words to that effect.

My suggestion is also only vaguely centred on some idea, again because you fail to give the immediate context.

Mpoma
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:45
Native speaker of: English
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Reference comments


56 mins peer agreement (net): +2
Reference: fwiw/hth

Reference information:
Le Beau-Bien-Bon, ce sont les 3 B du bonheur. Dans une approche à la croisée des neurosciences, de l’entraînement cérébral, de l’art-thérapie et de la psychologie positive, cet outil a été construit en partant d’une conviction : le bonheur, ça s’apprend, et on peut s’y entraîner, et y progresser !
https://www.amazon.fr/Beau-Bien-Bon-formule-magique-pour-sou...

http://www.aureliecousseau.com/tests/decouverte-beau-bien-bo...

writeaway
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  Nikki Scott-Despaigne: I agree that this is likely what is being referred to here: see Elisabeth Grimaud, academic psychologist on LinkedIn and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKIYGevgAxA&feature=youtu.be
3 hrs
agree  Yolanda Broad
8 hrs
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