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Home
Authors
Sydney J. Harris
American
Journalist
About the author
People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#People
#Fault
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Time
#Regret
Somebody who never got over the embarrassing fact that he was born in bed with a lady.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Fact
#Lady
#Bed
Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Practice
#Idea
The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Art
#Living
#Impulses
The beauty of "spacing" children many years apart lies in the fact that parents have time to learn the mistakes that were made with the older ones - which permits them to make exactly the opposite mistakes with the younger ones.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Time
#Children
#Years
#Mistakes
#Parents
#Beauty
#Fact
#Lies
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.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#May
#Pain
The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Right
#Being
#Argument
#Loss
The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong".
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Love
#World
#Hate
Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Want
#Time
#Love
#Change
#Hate
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Time
#Relax
The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Words
#Information
#Communication
#Giving
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Purpose
#Education
#Windows
There's no point in burying a hatchet if you're going to put up a marker on the site.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
When we have 'second thoughts' about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#First
#Thoughts
#Feelings
The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Enemy
#Progress
The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Will
#Men
#Computers
#Danger
An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Cynic
Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Nothing
#Promise
#Summer
#Winter
The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Purpose
#Education
#Mind
#Leisure
#Liberal
Almost no one is foolish enough to imagine that he automatically deserves great success in any field of activity; yet almost everyone believes that he automatically deserves success in marriage.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Success
#Marriage
Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Philosophy
Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Democracy
Enemies, as well as lovers, come to resemble each other over a period of time.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Time
#Enemies
#Lovers
Happiness is a direction, not a place.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Happiness
#Direction
If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Power
Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, "Why not?" and the other, "Why bother?"
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Time
#Life
#Saying
#Age
#Middle age
A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Ignorance
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?
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Life
#People
#World
#Strangers
Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Men
#Money
Many a secret that cannot be pried out by curiosity can be drawn out by indifference.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Curiosity
#Indifference
Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Knowledge
It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Life
#People
#Feelings
Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Superiority
#Intolerance
#Egotism
Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
Sydney J. Harris,
American
Journalist
#Man
#Old
#Idea