Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harris
Sydney J. Harriswas an American journalist for the Chicago Daily News and, later, the Chicago Sun-Times. He wrote 11 books and his weekday column, “Strictly Personal,” was syndicated in approximately 200 newspapers throughout the United States and Canada...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth14 September 1917
CountryUnited States of America
party play people
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.
men cynical may
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.
art squares choices
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.
differences enemy use
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.
teaching confusing boring
Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.
thinking want matter
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.
children parent
Nobody can misunderstand a child as much as his own parents.
believe mean insanity
It is not only useless, it is harmful, to believe in oneself until one truly knows oneself. And to know oneself means to accept our moments of insanity, of eccentricity, of childishness and blindness.
children differences roles
A person is either himself or not himself; is either rooted in his existence or is a fabrication; has either found his humanhood or is still playing with masks and roles and status symbols. And nobody is more aware of this difference (although unconsciously) than a child. Only an authentic person can evoke a good response in the core of the other person; only person is resonant to person.
nice done deeds
Nice things are done for our own sake, not for the sake of others. The pleasure must reside in the performance, not in the applause. Good deeds are, in a deeper psychological way, a favor to oneself. If this is not grasped, then our whole sense of personal relationships becomes warped.
advice kind trouble
Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble.
wise wisdom men
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."
dream follow-your-dreams boundaries
Never let your fears be the boundaries of your dreams. Happiness is a direction, not a place.
philosophy moral ethics
Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.