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.

Sydney J. Harris

Categorized in : Done Deeds Nice

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

attitude war country

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.

Sydney J. Harris

wall education graduation

History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.

Sydney J. Harris

cunning damage-is-done history-repeats-itself

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

inspirational love life

Nobody can misunderstand a child as much as his own parents.

Sydney J. Harris

parent children

When a baseball player makes an error, it goes into the record and is published. How many of us could stand this sort of daily scrutiny?

Sydney J. Harris

player baseball funny

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

cynical may men

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.

Sydney J. Harris

change love funny

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

Sydney J. Harris

forgiveness forgiving loser

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

running inspirational love

There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.

Sydney J. Harris

republican voting democracy

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

self attitude giving

Happiness is a direction, not a place.

Sydney J. Harris

happy being-happy happiness

A winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when he is considered an expert by others; a loser wants to be considered an expert by others before he has learned enough to know how little he knows.

Sydney J. Harris

growth experts want

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

predicaments problem answers

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

wisdom wise men

The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.

Sydney J. Harris

communication giving two

Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder - and turn quickly to my typewriter.

Sydney J. Harris

staring typewriters morning

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

motivational inspirational love

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

technology real math