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. HARRISElitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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Skepticism is not an end in itself; it is a tool for the discovery of truths.
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The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals.
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Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught.
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Real loneliness consists not in being alone, but in being with the wrong person, in the suffocating darkness of a room in which no deep communication is possible.
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Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.
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Being yourself is not remaining what you were, or being satisfied with what you are. It is the point of departure and far from the goal.
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An idealist believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter.
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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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Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.
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A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.
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The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.
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Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.
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We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion.
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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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When we have “second thoughts” about something, our first thoughts don’t seem like thoughts at all – just feelings.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS