affect not effect

I was wanting to know how to say "affect not effect" in Russian.

I was wanting it to essentially mean: You cause things to happen (affect), not to let other things determine how you are (effect)

My nephew is graduating in a few days and I was going to have this in a gift for him. His dad liked to use the play on words as something to motivate him to make something of himself.

Thanks so much in advance, your help in this is much appreciated

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Originally Posted by mjstooone

I was wanting to know how to say "affect not effect" in Russian.

I was wanting it to essentially mean: You cause things to happen (affect), not to let other things determine how you are (effect)

My nephew is graduating in a few days and I was going to have this in a gift for him. His dad liked to use the play on words as something to motivate him to make something of himself.

Thanks so much in advance, your help in this is much appreciated

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Wordplays are mainly not translatable. One can try to search something more or less like it in Russian, but... to understand high quality wordplay one need to know the language really good. Are you sure your nephew is so good in Russian?

OK, here is a motivator from me:

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Лёжа -- легче.

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I agree, and completely understand that wordplays are hard to translate and keep the meaning. I even understand that most of the point behind the wordplay is lost when it is translated as it isnt normally a wordplay anymore.

He isnt a scholar in the Russian language by any means, but he is pretty good.

I just think he would appreciate it a lot as it was something his dad used to say quite a bit.

Thanks again!!