What is much harder to handle is the sense that you have to live up to the mark someone else has set for you. The grades become too important, the competition too frantic, the fear of disappointing those who believe in you turns into an overwhelming nightmare.
SYDNEY J. HARRISThe art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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There’s no point in burying a hatchet if you’re going to put up a marker on the site.
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It is not only useless, it is harmful, to believe in oneself until one truly knows oneself. And to know oneself means to accept our moments of insanity, of eccentricity, of childishness and blindness.
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The main discomfort in being a middle-of-the-roader is that you get sideswiped by partisans going in both directions.
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Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.
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Patriotism is proud of a country’s virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues.
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We truly possess only what we are able to renounce; otherwise, we are simply possessed by our possessions.
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People decline invitations when they are “indisposed” physically, and I wish they would do likewise when they feel indisposed emotionally. A person has no more right to attend a party with a head full of venom than with a throat full of virus.
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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.
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Enemies, as well as lovers, come to resemble each other over a period of time.
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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.
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Many people know how to work hard; many others know how to play well; but the rarest talent in the world is the ability to introduce elements of playfulness into work, and to put some constructive labor into our leisure.
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It’s odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that English is the only major language in which “I” is capitalized; in many other languages “You” is capitalized and the “i” is lower case.” —
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The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS -
Many people feel “guilty” about things they shouldn’t feel guilty about, in order to shut out feelings of guilt about things they should feel guilty about.
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Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
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Skepticism is not an end in itself; it is a tool for the discovery of truths.
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Happiness is a direction, not a place.
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Take away grievances from some people and you remove their reasons for living; most of us are nourished by hope, but a considerable minority get psychic nutrition from their resentments, and would waste away purposelessly without them.
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We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we have stopped saying ‘It got lost,’ and say, ‘I lost it.’
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Those who imagine that the world is against them have generally conspired to make it true.
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The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.
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The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
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When we have “second thoughts” about something, our first thoughts don’t seem like thoughts at all – just feelings.
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And nobody is more aware of this difference (although unconsciously) than a child. Only an authentic person can evoke a good response in the core of the other person; only person is resonant to person.
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The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught.
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Nobody really knows how smart or talented he is until he finds the incentives to use himself to the fullest. God has given us more than we know what to do with.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS