36 quotes
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
On the Contrary (1964)
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.
The principal difference between love and hate is that love is an irradiation, and hate is a concentration.
Strictly Personal (1953)
The core in the mystery of what we call personality resides in the individual mix between character and temperament.
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify.
Clearing the Ground (1986)
People who think they’re generous to a fault usually think that’s their only fault.
On the Contrary (1964)
The human Jesus is, to my mind, the ultimate paradigm of such psychic equilibrium. He was absolutely hard on himself and absolutely tender toward others.
Clearing the Ground (1986)
There is no such thing as an "atrocity" in warfare that is greater than the atrocity of warfare itself.
Pieces of Eight (1982)
Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught.
Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable.
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith.
Pieces of Eight (1982)
Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
Strictly Personal (1953)
Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder — and turn quickly to my typewriter.
A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably excuses himself to himself by saying, "I'm only human, after all."
Strictly Personal (1953)
When I hear somebody sigh that "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
Strictly Personal (1953)
Usually, if we hate, it is the shadow of the person that we hate, rather than the substance.
The Best of Sydney J. Harris (1975)
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.
Pieces of Eight (1982)
All the fearful counterfeits of love — possessiveness, lust, vanity, jealousy — are closer to hate: they concentrate on the object, guard it, suck it dry.
Strictly Personal (1953)
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.
Pieces of Eight (1982)
Patriotism is proud of a country’s virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues.
Pieces of Eight (1982)