243 Quotes by Sydney J. Harris

Western civilization has not yet learned the lesson that the energy we expend in ‘getting things done’ is less important than the moral strength it takes to decide what is worth doing and what is right to do.

When we have “second thoughts” about something, our first thoughts don’t seem like thoughts at all – just feelings.

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

Just about the only interruption we don’t object to is applause.

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.

Filth is always a sign of weakness – in the mouth of the user and in the mind of the writer.

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s leisure.

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.

It’s odd that the people who worry whether certain plays are “morally offensive” so rarely worry about the moral offensiveness of war, poverty, bigotry.