Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.
SYDNEY J. HARRISThe truest test of independent judgment is being able to dislike someone who admires us, and to admire someone who dislikes us.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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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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All significant achievement comes from daring from experiment from the willingness to risk failure.
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A university is not, primarily, a place in which to learn how to make a living; it is a place in which to learn how to be more fully a human being, how to draw upon one’s resources, how to discipline the mind and expand the imagination; how to make some sense out of the big world we will shortly be thrown into.
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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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An idealist believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter.
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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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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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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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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.
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Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves – so how can we know anyone else?
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You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.
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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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Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people?
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A man will lay down his life for his friend but will not sacrifice his eardrums.
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When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’
SYDNEY J. HARRIS