Sydney J. Harris quotes - page 2

Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there. (Sydney J. Harris)
The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size? View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Enemies, as well as lovers, come to resemble each other over a period of time. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, 'Why not?' and the other, 'Why bother?' View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder - and turn quickly to my typewriter. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice that is, until we stop saying 'It got lost,' and say 'I lost it.' (Sydney J. Harris)
A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably excuses himself to himself by saying, "I'm only human, after all." View quote
Sydney J. Harris
A general practitioner is a doctor who treats what you've got; a specialist is a doctor who finds you've got what he treats. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
We are just beginning to learn that our same old habits, like the exploitation of nonrenewable resources, may make us at one with the auk and the dodo. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Work and play are an artificial pair of opposites, because the best kind of play contains an element of work, and the most productive kind of work must include something of the spirit of play. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Superior people are only those who let it be discovered by others; the need to make it evident forfeits the very virtue they aspire to. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Young people know less than we do, but they understand more; their perception has not yet been blunted by compromise, fatigue, rationalization, and the mistaking of mere respectability for morality. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Freud's prescription for personal happiness as consisting of work and love must be taken with the proviso that the work has to be loved, and the love has to be worked at. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Everyone admits that "the truth hurts" but no one applies this adage to himself - and as soon as it begins to hurt us, we quickly repudiate it and call it a lie. It is this tendency toward self-deception (more than any active sin) that makes human progress slow and almost imperceptible. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
A winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when he is considered an expert by others; a loser wants to be considered an expert by others before he has learned enough to know how little he knows. (Sydney J. Harris)
The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Ninety per cent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves - so how can we know anyone else? View quote
Sydney J. Harris
Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one. View quote
Sydney J. Harris