This is a lesson mankind has not yet learned. We identify, and stratify, and treat persons largely on the basis of their accidental (physical) characteristics, which have no deeper meaning.
SYDNEY J. HARRISThe 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.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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The severest test of character is not so much the ability to keep a secret as it is, when the secret is finally out, to refrain from disclosing that you knew it all along.
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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 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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We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion.
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Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.
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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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Those who imagine that the world is against them have generally conspired to make it true.
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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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Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.
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The public examination of homosexuality in our contemporary life is still so coated with distasteful moral connotations that even a reviewer is bound to wonder uneasily why he was selected to evaluate a book on the subject.
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There is no such thing as an “atrocity” in warfare that is greater than the atrocity of warfare itself.
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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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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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If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, but the perpetual human predicament is that the answer soon poses its own problems.
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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.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS