Quote

People decline invitations when they are indisposed physically, and I wish they would do likewise when they feel indisposed emotionally. A person has no more right to attend a party with a head full of venom than with a throat full of virus.

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
Right
Physically
Venom
Feel
Throat
Virus
Full
Viruses
Feels
Head
Likewise
Would
Party
Invitations
People
Wish
Attend
Persons
Emotionally
Person
Decline

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No one should pay attention to a man delivering a lecture or a sermon on his philosophy of life until we know exactly how he treats his wife, his children, his neighbors, his friends, his subordinates and his enemies.
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There's no point in burying a hatchet if you're going to put up a marker on the site.
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Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice.
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Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble.
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Life is, if anything, the art of combination. Of discrimination. Of freely picking one's own personal pattern out of a hundred choices. Not letting it be picked for you—either by the Establishment, or by the Rebels. Conformity of Hip is no better than Conformity of Square.
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Between the semi-educated, who offer simplistic answers to complex questions, and the overeducated, who offer complicated answers to simple questions, it is a wonder that any questions get satisfactorily answered at all.
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This is a lesson mankind has not yet learned. We identify, and stratify, and treat persons largely on the basis of their accidental (physical) characteristics, which have no deeper meaning.
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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.
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God cannot be solemn, or he would not have blessed man with the incalculable gift of laughter.
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The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.
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Most people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
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Much as a teacher may wince at the thought, he is also an entertainer—for unless he can hold his audience, he cannot really instruct or edify them.
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A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, his is also one who is permanently disappointed in the future.
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All significant achievement comes from daring from experiment from the willingness to risk failure.
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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.
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Many people feel guilty about things they shouldn't feel guilty about, in order to shut out feelings of guilt about things they should feel guilty about.
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Those who imagine that the world is against them have generally conspired to make it true.
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It may be true that the weak will always be driven to the wall but it is the task of a just society to see that the wall is climbable.
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