The truest test of independent judgment is being able to dislike someone who admires us, and to admire someone who dislikes us.
SYDNEY J. HARRISA loser says that’s the way it’s always been done. A winner says there ought to be a better way.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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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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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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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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The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals.
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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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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.
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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 pessimist sees only the tunnel; the optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel; the realist sees the tunnel and the light – and the next tunnel.
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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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Life is, if anything, the art of combination. Of discrimination. Of freely picking one’s own personal pattern out of a hundred choices. Not letting it be picked for you-either by the Establishment, or by the Rebels. Conformity of Hip is no better than Conformity of Square.
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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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Usually, if we hate, it is the shadow of the person that we hate, rather than the substance.
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The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
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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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Many married couples separate because they quarrel incessantly, but just as many separate because they were never honest enough or courageous enough to quarrel when they should have.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS