Sydney J. Harris quotes - page 2

Sydney J. Harris was an American journalist and syndicated columnist, best known for his insightful essays on society and human behavior. His widely read columns in the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times touched on philosophy, education, and contemporary issues. He is remembered for his clear writing style and his ability to provoke thoughtful reflection among readers. Here are 134 of his quotes:

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.

Sydney J. Harris

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

Sydney J. Harris

If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?

Sydney J. Harris

Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice.

Sydney J. Harris

The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.

Sydney J. Harris

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.

Sydney J. Harris

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

Sydney J. Harris

Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, 'Why not?' and the other, 'Why bother?'

Sydney J. Harris

Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder - and turn quickly to my typewriter.

Sydney J. Harris

A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably excuses himself to himself by saying, "I'm only human, after all."

Sydney J. Harris

A general practitioner is a doctor who treats what you've got; a specialist is a doctor who finds you've got what he treats.

Sydney J. Harris

We are just beginning to learn that our same old habits, like the exploitation of nonrenewable resources, may make us at one with the auk and the dodo.

Sydney J. Harris

Work and play are an artificial pair of opposites, because the best kind of play contains an element of work, and the most productive kind of work must include something of the spirit of play.

Sydney J. Harris

Superior people are only those who let it be discovered by others; the need to make it evident forfeits the very virtue they aspire to.

Sydney J. Harris

Young people know less than we do, but they understand more; their perception has not yet been blunted by compromise, fatigue, rationalization, and the mistaking of mere respectability for morality.

Sydney J. Harris

Freud's prescription for personal happiness as consisting of work and love must be taken with the proviso that the work has to be loved, and the love has to be worked at.

Sydney J. Harris

Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify.

Sydney J. Harris

Everyone admits that "the truth hurts" but no one applies this adage to himself - and as soon as it begins to hurt us, we quickly repudiate it and call it a lie. It is this tendency toward self-deception (more than any active sin) that makes human progress slow and almost imperceptible.

Sydney J. Harris

The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.

Sydney J. Harris

Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.

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?

Sydney J. Harris

Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one.

Sydney J. Harris