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.
SYDNEY J. HARRISThe 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.
More Sydney J. Harris Quotes
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Never let your fears be the boundaries of your dreams. Happiness is a direction, not a place.
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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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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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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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There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.
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The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.
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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 whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
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Almost every man looks more so in a belted trench coat.
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Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
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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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A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, his is also one who is permanently disappointed in the future.
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Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.
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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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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.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS