The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.
SYDNEY J. HARRISPeople 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.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals.
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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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Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.
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And to assert defensively at the outset that he is happily married, the father of four children and the one-time adornment of his college boxing, track and tennis teams.
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The best combination of parents consists of a father who is gentle beneath his firmness, and a mother who is firm beneath her gentleness.
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Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder – and turn quickly to my typewriter.
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Love makes everything lovely; hate concentrates itself on the object of its hatred.
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When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’
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Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people?
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The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
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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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We truly possess only what we are able to renounce; otherwise, we are simply possessed by our possessions.
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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.
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We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure.
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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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When we have “second thoughts” about something, our first thoughts don’t seem like thoughts at all – just feelings.
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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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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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Those who imagine that the world is against them have generally conspired to make it true.
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Happiness is a direction, not a place.
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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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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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Making out an invitation list for a party brings out the worst in everyone. It is then that our most ruthless estimates of the people we know come into play.
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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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The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS