Sydney J. Harris quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Sydney J. Harris

Sydney J. Harris Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Sydney J. Harris on Wise Famous Quotes.

The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.

See him as the child he was.

Success is just a little more effort.

Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble.

Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify.

Time is love, above all else. It is the most precious commodity in the world and should be lavished on those we care most about.

Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.

You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.

Sincerity that thinks it is the sole possessor of the truth is a deadlier sin than hypocrisy, which knows better.

History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.

Much as a teacher may wince at the thought, he is also an entertainer - for unless he can hold his audience, he cannot really instruct or edify them.

If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?

A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.

The only way to avoid trouble is to avoid living.

It calls for deciding things on their own merit, not because you read it or were told it or grew up believing it.

Just about the only interruption we don't object to is applause.

The way in which we say something is often more important than what we say.

The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.

Why do so many people yearn for an eternal life when they don't even know what to do with themselves in this brief one?

The truest test of independent judgment is being able to dislike someone who admires us, and to admire someone who dislikes us.

Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to reamin the same but get better ...

Somebody who never got over the embarrassing fact that he was born in bed with a lady.

More trouble is caused in this world by indiscreet answers than by indiscreet questions.

As WArden Lawes once said of convicts, no man can be called a failure until he has tried something he really likes, and fails at it.

The profound immoralities of our time are cruelty, indifference, injustice and the use of others as means rather than ends in themselves.

The cynic is goodhearted beneath his facade, whereas the sentimentalist is flint-hearted beneath his.

Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.

All significant achievement comes from daring from experiment from the willingness to risk failure.

The people who are suspicious of certain things are the very ones who are the most capable of doing that of which they are suspicious.

Marriages we regard as the happiest are those in which each of the partners believes he or she got the best of it.

The main discomfort in being a middle-of-the-roader is that you get sideswiped by partisans going in both directions.

But if "beauty" is in the eye of the beholder, so is "obscenity.

It may be true that the weak will always be driven to the wall; but it is the task of a just society to see that the wall is climbable.

Being yourself is not remaining where you are, or being satisfied with what you are. It is the point of departure.

Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something without feeling the necessity to prove someone else wrong.

In a real sense, all of us are "the parents" of all young children - because we help shape the culture and determine its values.

We must also learn that time itself is indivisible, that every act is a blending of past experience, present situation and future expectancy.

Enemies, as well as lovers, come to resemble each other over a period of time.

Many a secret that cannot be pried out by curiosity can be drawn out by indifference.

Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice.

Any creed whose basic doctrines do not include respect for the creeds of others, is simply power politics masquerading as philosophy.

Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.

People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault.

We truly possess only what we are able to renounce; otherwise, we are simply possessed by our possessions.

Those who imagine that the world is against them have generally conspired to make it true.

We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion.

God cannot be solemn, or he would not have blessed man with the incalculable gift of laughter.

Self-discipline without talent can often achieve astounding results, whereas talent without self-discipline inevitably dooms itself to failure.

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.

The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.

Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, 'Why not?' and the other, 'Why bother?'

Those obsessed with health are not healthy; the first requisite of good health is a certain calculated carelessness about oneself.

Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder - and turn quickly to my typewriter.

Every rule in the book can be broken, except one - be who you are, and become all you were meant to be ...

Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting.

When a man's position in life depends upon his having a certain opinion, that's the opinion he will have.

Being able to do exactly as one pleases is the surest way to remain perpetually unpleased.

There is no such thing as an "atrocity" in warfare that is greater than the atrocity of warfare itself.

The best thing you can give children, next to good habits, are good memories.

When a baseball player makes an error, it goes into the record and is published. How many of us could stand this sort of daily scrutiny?

When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?

Regret for the things we have done will be tempered by time. It is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

A 'penchant for telling the truth' can cripple a candidates chances faster than being caught in flagrante delicto with the governor's wife.

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.

Skepticism is not an end in itself; it is a tool for the discovery of truths.

By the time a man asks you for advice, he has generally made up his mind what he wants to do, and is looking for confirmation rather than counseling.

The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught.

Almost every man looks more so in a belted trench coat.

We believe what we want to believe, what we like to believe, what suits our prejudices and fuels our passions.

If you cannot endure to be thought in the wrong, you will begin to do terrible things to make the wrong appear right.

"Terrorism" is what we call the violence of the weak, and we condemn it; "war" is what we call the violence of the strong, and we glorify it.

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

Filth is always a sign of weakness - in the mouth of the user and in the mind of the writer.

Law is order in liberty, and without order liberty is social chaos.

The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals.

Regret for things we have done can be tempered by time, it is regret for things we have not done that is inconsolable.

Honesty consists of the unwillingness to lie to others; maturity, which is equally hard to attain, consists of the unwillingness to lie to oneself.

When we have 'second thoughts' about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings.

As long as there are human beings, there will be the idea of brotherhood
and an almost total inability to practice it.

A loser says that's the way it's always been done. A winner says there ought to be a better way.

The best combination of parents consists of a father who is gentle beneath his firmness, and a mother who is firm beneath her gentleness.

Patriotism is wanting what is best for your country. Nationalism is thinking your country is best, no matter what it does.

Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.

Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught.

Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people?

Nobody can misunderstand a child as much as his own parents.

Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.

All love relationships are controlled by an element of fear - that of acting, or becoming, unworthy of the loved one's approbation.

Many persons of high intelligence have notoriously poor judgement.

If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, "You Only Live Once."

Gourmet: Usually little more than a glutton festooned with credit cards.

A child owes respect to a parent, but there is no natural obligation to like a parent - unless the parent makes himself likable as a person.

Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway

There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.

Genealogy: A perverse preoccupation of those who seek to demonstrate that their forebears were better people than they are.