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Age
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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
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Anger
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If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?
-Sydney J. Harris
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Argument & Debate
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The most important tactic 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 an embarrassing loss of face.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Computers
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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
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Conflict
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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
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Conscience
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Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a necessary evil, it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Cynicism
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A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Difficulty
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When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'
-Sydney J. Harris
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Discovery
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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
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Dissent
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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
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Evil
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If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, You Only Live Once.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Forgiveness
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A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive
-Sydney J. Harris
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Generosity
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People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Idealism
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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
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Ideas
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Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Identity
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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
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Maturity
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We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice--that is, until we have stopped saying It got lost, and say, I lost it.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Mirrors
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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
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Morals
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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
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Mother
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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
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Persistence
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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
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Pessimism
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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
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Progress
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The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Regret & Remorse
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Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
-Sydney J. Harris, Strictly Personal
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Relaxation
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The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
-Sydney J. Harris
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Books by and about Sydney J. Harris