观察以下句子的共同之处：

政之所兴，在顺民心；政之所废，在逆民心。(《管子．牧民篇》)

亲贤臣，远小人，此先汉所以兴隆也；亲小人，远贤臣，此后汉所以倾颓也。(诸葛亮《出师表》）

有缺点的战士终究是战士，完美的苍蝇终究不过是苍蝇。

有的人活着，他已经死了;有的人死了，他还活着。

"We notice things that don't work. We don't notice things that do. We notice computers, we don't notice pennies. We notice e-book readers, we don't notice books." (道格拉斯·亚当斯, 怀疑的鲑鱼: 最后一次搭便车去银河系.)

When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon it might have been one small step for a man but it was one giant leap for mankind.

"The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression."(哈罗德·品特, "Writing for the Theatre," 1962)

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." (亚伯拉罕·林肯, 葛底斯堡演说, 1863年)

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."(马丁·路德·金, 1964年)

"Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours." (奥巴马总统, 竞选获胜演讲, 2012年11月7日)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way。（狄更斯，双城记）

不难发现，这些句子的共通特点有：内容至少两部分、语法对称的结构、表达的意思相对。相比于 Allusion, 对比句/Antithesis 主要在形式上理解，比较容易，此文专注于中文对比句和英文之对应概念Antithesis的比较，以加强对其理解。

对比/Antithesis比较

对比，是把具有明显差异、矛盾和对立的双方安排在一起，进行对照比较的表现手法。对比手法是把对立的意思或事物、或把事物的两个方面放在一起作比较，以突出事物的本质，表达强烈的情感，留下深刻的印象。英文中的对应概念亦是如此：

“An antithesis is used when the writer employs two sentences of contrasting meanings in close proximity to one another. Whether they are words or phrases of the same sentence, an antithesis is used to create a stark contrast using two divergent elements that come together to create one uniform whole. An antithesis plays on the complementary property of opposites to create one vivid picture. The purpose of using an antithesis in literature is to create a balance between opposite qualities and lend a greater insight into the subject.”

1 起源相似性：

对比句和 antithesis 有着相似的起源。Antithesis 是由于当时西方古希腊、罗马时期人们对演讲术十分重视（亚里士多德在公元前四世纪就对修辞术和演讲书进行过思考而著《修辞术》一书）， antithesis 作为一中修辞手段因非常有利于逻辑论辩而得以充分利用和发展的。

中国当时虽然没有与其完全一样的演说的传统，但是在春秋战国诸侯割据、兼并频繁的时期，很多“行人”（外交官）和知识阶层“士”四处奔走、游说论辩，也重用对比等修辞方法。

2 结构相似

从例句可以发现：对比句是用字数相等、结构形式相同、含义对立的短语或句子。

而，an antithesis is composed of three main components: (1) at least two parts, (2) contrasting ideas, and (3) a parallel grammatical structure.

除了结构整齐匀称外，中英文读起来在音律上都比较和谐。

3 效果相似

对比和Antithesis 会使表达言简意赅、语义鲜明，因又有韵律，很容易吸引人们的注意并记住。

4 除语类不同，还未发现不同之处。

注意：在写这片文章的时候发现，很多研究是用中文概念中的对偶句和 Antithesis 相比对的，但英文中，Antithesis 的要求是两个意思要对立，而对偶只需要结构上的对称，而无语意对立的要求, 因此，小编选择对比句和 Antithesis 相对应。