Best Sydney Harris Quotes

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

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.

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.

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

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

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.

People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault.

A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive

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

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.

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

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.

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.

The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.

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

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?

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

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

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

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.

If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, You Only Live Once.