Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.
SYDNEY J. HARRISEvery morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder – and turn quickly to my typewriter.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s leisure.
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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.
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Between the semi-educated, who offer simplistic answers to complex questions, and the overeducated, who offer complicated answers to simple questions, it is a wonder that any questions get satisfactorily answered at all.
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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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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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The founder of every creed from Jesus Christ to Karl Marx, would be appalled to return to earth and see what has been made of that creed, not by its enemies, but by its most devoted adherents.
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Marriages we regard as the happiest are those in which each of the partners believes he or she got the best of it.
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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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Honesty consists of the unwillingness to lie to others; maturity, which is equally hard to attain, consists of the unwillingness to lie to oneself.
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Man’s unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.
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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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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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The truest test of independent judgment is being able to dislike someone who admires us, and to admire someone who dislikes us.
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The best thing you can give children, next to good habits, are good memories.
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A ‘penchant for telling the truth’ can cripple a candidates chances faster than being caught in flagrante delicto with the governor’s wife.
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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.
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The loner may be respected, but he is always resented by his colleagues, for he seems to be passing a critical judgment on them, when he may be simply making a limiting statement about himself.
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Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, ‘Why not?’ and the other, ‘Why bother?’
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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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Usually, if we hate, it is the shadow of the person that we hate, rather than the substance.
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The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.
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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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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.
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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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Every rule in the book can be broken, except one – be who you are, and become all you were meant to be.
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Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS