Sydney J. Harris was an American journalist and author of the nationally syndicated column "Strictly Personal." He wrote for the Chicago Daily News and then the Chicago Sun-Times for nearly fifty years. His columns were known for their wit and insight into human nature, and he was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Sydney J. Harris on education, leadership, freedom.
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.
When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'
Happiness is a direction, not a place.
History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.
There's no point in burying a hatchet if you're going to put up a marker on the site.
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.
The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.
Sydney J. Harris inspirational quote
Sydney J. Harris Image Quotes
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. — Sydney J. Harris
Happiness is a direction, not a place. — Sydney J. Harris
Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.
Many a secret that cannot be pried out by curiosity can be drawn out by indifference.
Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble.
Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.
It is surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feeling toward themselves, and if you are not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others.
Sydney J. Harris Quotes About Education
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we have stopped saying 'It got lost,' and say, 'I lost it.' — Sydney J. Harris
The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught. — Sydney J. Harris
Between the semi-educated, who offer simplistic answers to complex questions, and the overeducated, who offer complicated answers to simple questions, it is a wonder that any questions get satisfactorily answered at all. — Sydney J. Harris
Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people? — Sydney J. Harris
Most people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times. Some people are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. — Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harris Quotes About Life
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. — Sydney J. Harris
Why do so many people yearn for an eternal life when they don't even know what to do with themselves in this brief one? — 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
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
Confidence, once lost or betrayed, can never be restored again to the same measure; and we learn too late in life that our acts of deception are irrevocable - they may be forgiven, but they cannot be forgotten by their victims. — Sydney J. Harris
The paradox of friendship is that it is both the strongest thing in the world and the most fragile. Wild horses cannot separate friends, but whining words can. A man will lay down his life for his friend but will not sacrifice his eardrums. — Sydney J. Harris
What the ordinary person means by a 'miracle' is some gross distortion or suspension of the laws of nature... but life itself strikes him as commonplace, when in truth a blade of grass or a neuron in the brain is a greater miracle. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
As the horsepower in modern automobiles steadily rises, the congestion of traffic steadily lowers the average possible speed of your car. This is known as Progress. — 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
Sydney J. Harris Quotes About World
The deepest and rarest kind of courage has nothing to do with feats or obstacles in the outside world; and, indeed, has nothing to do with the outside world - it is the courage to be who you are. — Sydney J. Harris
Many people know how to work hard; many others know how to play well; but the rarest talent in the world is the ability to introduce elements of playfulness into work, and to put some constructive labor into our leisure. — Sydney J. Harris
Time is love, above all else. It is the most precious commodity in the world and should be lavished on those we care most about. — Sydney J. Harris
The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals. — Sydney J. Harris
More trouble is caused in this world by indiscreet answers than by indiscreet questions. — Sydney J. Harris
The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong". — Sydney J. Harris
The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements,but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, 'I was wrong.' — Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harris Quotes About Religion
The real heretic is not the atheist or agnostic (who are often decent people) but those who murmur "it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as it makes you feel good." This turns religion into a subjective matter, like taste in furnishings, and robs theology of its claim to ultimate truth. — Sydney J. Harris
The difference between faith and superstition is that the first uses reason to go as far as it can, and then makes the jump; the second shuns reason entirely — which is why superstition is not the ally, but the enemy, of true religion. — Sydney J. Harris
Christianity is not a "spiritual" religion, like some religions of the east. It is an intensely "practical" religion, having its moral roots in the practicality of judaism. It was not designed to change the way men think or believe as much as to change the way they act. — Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harris Quotes About Thoughtful
When we have 'second thoughts' about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings. — Sydney J. Harris
If you cannot endure to be thought in the wrong, you will begin to do terrible things to make the wrong appear right. — Sydney J. Harris
Much as a teacher may wince at the thought, he is also an entertainer—for unless he can hold his audience, he cannot really instruct or edify them. — Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harris Quotes About People
People who won't help others in trouble "because they got into trouble through their own fault" would probably not throw a lifeline to a drowning person until they learned whether that person fell in through his or her own fault or not. — Sydney J. Harris
American parents, on the whole, do not want their sons to be artisans or craftsmen, but business or professional people. As a result, millions of youngsters are being prepared for careers they have little aptitude for - and little interest in except for dubious prestige. — Sydney J. Harris
Norbert Blei is a writer the way people used to be troubadours and minstrels, celebrating what he has seen and heart and felt in a deceptively simple style reminiscent of the early Sherwood Anderson. . . . Like Anderson, he is a lover, and his affection invests his writing with a singular charm. — Sydney J. Harris
People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault. — Sydney J. Harris
Many people feel "guilty" about things they shouldn't feel guilty about, in order to shut out feelings of guilt about things they should feel guilty about. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
Genealogy: A perverse preoccupation of those who seek to demonstrate that their forebears were better people than they are. — Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harris Famous Quotes And Sayings
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. — Sydney J. Harris
The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war. — Sydney J. Harris
Happiness is a direction, not a place. — Sydney J. Harris
A famously wise old man in a village was once asked how he came by his wisdom. "I got it from my good judgment," he answered. And where did his good judgment come from? "I got it from my bad judgment." — Sydney J. Harris
There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen. — Sydney J. Harris
Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own. — Sydney J. Harris
"Terrorism" is what we call the violence of the weak, and we condemn it; "war" is what we call the violence of the strong, and we glorify it. — Sydney J. Harris
When we inform, we lead from strength; when we communicate, we lead from weakness—and it is precisely this confession of mortality that engages the ears, heads and hearts of those we want to enlist as allies in a common cause. — Sydney J. Harris
An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run. — Sydney J. Harris
The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes them a mother - which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician. — Sydney J. Harris
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
We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion. — Sydney J. Harris
Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
Real loneliness consists not in being alone, but in being with the wrong person, in the suffocating darkness of a room in which no deep communication is possible. — Sydney J. Harris
Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something without feeling the necessity to prove someone else wrong. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
Nuclear war is inevitable, says the pessimists; Nuclear war is impossible, says the optimists; Nuclear war is inevitable unless we make it impossible, says the realists. — Sydney J. Harris
The best combination of parents consists of a father who is gentle beneath his firmness, and a mother who is firm beneath her gentleness. — Sydney J. Harris
The reason that truth is stranger than fiction is that fiction has to have a rational thread running through it in order to be believable, whereas reality may be totally irrational. — Sydney J. Harris
Ancient boundaries are meaningless, except for political purposes; old divisions of clan and tribe are sentimental remnants of the pre-atomic age; neither creed nor color nor place of origin is relevant to the realities of modern power to utterly seek and destroy. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
We truly possess only what we are able to renounce; otherwise, we are simply possessed by our possessions. — Sydney J. Harris
Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting. — Sydney J. Harris
Every rule in the book can be broken, except one - be who you are, and become all you were meant to be. — Sydney J. Harris
It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest', but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is. — 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
The 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. — Sydney J. Harris
We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure. — Sydney J. Harris
Perseverance is the most overrated of traits, if it is unaccompanied by talent; beating your head against a wall is more likely to produce a concussion in the head than a hole in the wall. — Sydney J. Harris
The art of listening needs its highest development in listening to oneself; our most important task is to develop an ear that can really hear what we're saying. — Sydney J. Harris
The truest test of independent judgment is being able to dislike someone who admires us, and to admire someone who dislikes us. — Sydney J. Harris
Honesty consists of the unwillingness to lie to others; maturity, which is equally hard to attain, consists of the unwillingness to lie to oneself. — Sydney J. Harris
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, his is also one who is permanently disappointed in the future. — Sydney J. Harris
Why are we willing to accept a new mathematical formula we don't understand as the product of a brilliant mind, while rejecting a new art form we don't understand as the product of a deranged mind? — Sydney J. Harris
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. 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
The profound immoralities of our time are cruelty, indifference, injustice and the use of others as means rather than ends in themselves. — Sydney J. Harris
And most of the failures in parent-child relationships, from my observation, begin when the child begins to acquire a mind and a will of its own, to make independent decisions and to question the omnipotence or the wisdom of the parent. — Sydney J. Harris
The best thing you can give children, next to good habits, are good memories. — Sydney J. Harris
Parents - and teachers too - are woefully short-sighted when they try to protect the child from his mistakes, when they make the "right answer" more important than the quest for knowledge and good judgment. For what is not learned within one's self cannot be learned from another. — Sydney J. Harris
Just about the only interruption we don't object to is applause. — Sydney J. Harris
Isolation always perverts; when a man lives only among his own sort, he soon begins to believe that his sort are the best sort. This attitude breeds both the arrogance of the conservative and the bitterness of the radical. — Sydney J. Harris
Western civilization has not yet learned the lesson that the energy we expend in 'getting things done' is less important than the moral strength it takes to decide what is worth doing and what is right to do. — Sydney J. Harris
Many persons of high intelligence have notoriously poor judgement. — Sydney J. Harris
But what is significant is that if you don't want to like and accept somebody, one excuse is as good as another. The objective facts don't matter, and the reasons are never as ‘reasonable' as we like to think they are. — Sydney J. Harris
If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, You Only Live Once. — Sydney J. Harris
Many married couples separate because they quarrel incessantly, but just as many separate because they were never honest enough or courageous enough to quarrel when they should have. — Sydney J. Harris
Any creed whose basic doctrines do not include respect for the creeds of others, is simply power politics masquerading as philosophy. — 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
If you want to know what a man's character is really like... ask him to tell you the living person he most admires - for hero worship is the truest index of a man's private nature. — Sydney J. Harris
Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in. — Sydney J. Harris
The lusts of the flesh can be gratified anywhere; it is not this sort of license that distinguishes New York. It is rather, a lust of the total ego for recognition, even for eminence. More than elsewhere, everybody here wants to be somebody. — Sydney J. Harris
Those obsessed with health are not healthy; the first requisite of good health is a certain calculated carelessness about oneself. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing. — Sydney J. Harris
Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught. — Sydney J. Harris
We must become masters of our own actions and attitudes. To let another person determine whether we will be rude or gracious, elated or depressed is to give control of ourselves. The only true possession is self possession. — Sydney J. Harris
Somebody who never got over the embarrassing fact that he was born in bed with a lady. — Sydney J. Harris
A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love -- takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice. — Sydney J. Harris
It may be true that the weak will always be driven to the wall; but it is the task of a just society to see that the wall is climbable. — Sydney J. Harris
Almost every man looks more so in a belted trench coat. — Sydney J. Harris
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. — Sydney J. Harris
Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. Happiness is a direction, not a place. — Sydney J. Harris
All our efforts to attain immortality-by statesmanship, by conquest, by science or the arts-are equally vain in the long run, because the long run is longer than any of us can imagine. — Sydney J. Harris
Life Lessons by Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harris taught that life is about taking risks and having the courage to pursue your dreams, no matter how difficult the journey may be.
He also believed that life should be lived with a sense of optimism, no matter what challenges you may face.
He encouraged people to be open to learning and growing, and to always strive to be the best version of themselves.
Citation
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