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.
SYDNEY J. HARRISIgnorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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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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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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Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder – and turn quickly to my typewriter.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS -
No one should pay attention to a man delivering a lecture or a sermon on his “philosophy of life” until we know exactly how he treats his wife, his children, his neighbors, his friends, his subordinates and his enemies.
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If you cannot endure to be thought in the wrong, you will begin to do terrible things to make the wrong appear right.
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Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people?
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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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Skepticism is not an end in itself; it is a tool for the discovery of truths.
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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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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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A man will lay down his life for his friend but will not sacrifice his eardrums.
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Those who imagine that the world is against them have generally conspired to make it true.
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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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Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one.
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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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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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More trouble is caused in this world by indiscreet answers than by indiscreet questions.
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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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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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Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.
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Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.
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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 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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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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If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?
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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.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS