Sydney J. Harris

“Ninety per cent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves - so how can we know anyone else?”

“The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.”

“When we have 'second thoughts' about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings.”

“A winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when he is considered an expert by others; a loser wants to be considered an expert by others before he has learned enough to know how little he knows.”

“At it's highest level, the purpose of teaching is not to teach—it is to inspire the desire for learning. Once a student's mind is set on fire, it will find a way to provide its own fuel.”

“Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting.”

“The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.”

“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.”

“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.”

“It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others.”

“Enemies, as well as lovers, come to resemble each other over a period of time.”

“Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught.”

“When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'”

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”

“I am convinced that an immense number of people who have children should not have them, and do not particularly want them, except as "symbols" of family life. What they want are ideal children, not real ones; and as soon as the real ones show no intention of conforming to the ideal in the parent's mind, they are treated as burdens, shipped away to school or otherwise neglected.”

“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.”

“Many a secret that cannot be pried out by curiosity can be drawn out by indifference.”

“When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us.”

“Somebody who never got over the embarrassing fact that he was born in bed with a lady.”

“Almost no one is foolish enough to imagine that he automatically deserves great success in any field of activity; yet almost everyone believes that he automatically deserves success in marriage.”