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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.

Sydney J. Harris

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Sydney J. Harris
Age: 69 †
Born: 1917
Born: September 14
Died: 1986
Died: December 8
Journalist
London
England
Sydney Harris
Oneself
Accept
Truly
Childishness
Accepting
Eccentricity
Means
Harmful
Moments
Blindness
Mean
Insanity
Believe
Useless

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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.
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Never let your fears be the boundaries of your dreams. Happiness is a direction, not a place.
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Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure.
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Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.
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Men make counterfeit money in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.
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If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, You Only Live Once.
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A winner rebukes and forgives a loser is too Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love -- takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.
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The founder of every creed from Jesus Christ to Karl Marx, would be appalled to return to earth and see what has been made of that creed, not by its enemies, but by its most devoted adherents.
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There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.
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The severest test of character is not so much the ability to keep a secret as it is, when the secret is finally out, to refrain from disclosing that you knew it all along.
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The truest test of independent judgment is being able to dislike someone who admires us, and to admire someone who dislikes us.
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Being yourself is not remaining what you were, or being satisfied with what you are. It is the point of departure and far from the goal.
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By the time a man asks you for advice, he has generally made up his mind what he wants to do, and is looking for confirmation rather than counseling.
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