“The truly terrible thing about the war spirit, about the fear and hate hysteria it generates, is that it forces us to think and talk and feel in terms of abstractions—those "communists" this time, those "fascists" last time. But those we are fighting and killing are people—men, women and children—not political, geographic or economic abstractions. They are, in the main, as decent and fearful and confused as we are. And they regard us as abstractions as much as we do them.”
“The truly terrible thing about the war spirit, about the fear and hate hysteria it generates, is that it forces us to think and talk and feel in terms of abstractions—those "communists" this time, those "fascists" last time. But those we are fighting and killing are people—men, women and children—not political, geographic or economic abstractions. They are, in the main, as decent and fearful and confused as we are. And they regard us as abstractions as much as we do them.”
Sydney J. Harris
“And the end of this paradox is that only when the child is thus free can he have the proper attachment to his parents; only when we allow his independence can he then freely offer us love and respect, without conflict and without resentment. It is the hardest lesson to learn that the goal of parenthood is not to reign forever but to abdicate gracefully at the right time.”
Sydney J. Harris, Best of Sydney Harris“Ancient boundaries are meaningless, except for political purposes; old divisions of clan and tribe are sentimental remnants of the pre-atomic age; neither creed nor color nor place of origin is relevant to the realities of modern power to utterly seek and destroy.”
Sydney J. Harris, The Best of Sydney J. Harris“And most of the failures in parent-child relationships, from my observation, begin when the child begins to acquire a mind and a will of its own, to make independent decisions and to question the omnipotence or the wisdom of the parent.”
Sydney J. Harris, The Best of Sydney J. Harris“I am convinced that an immense number of people who have children should not have them, and do not particularly want them, except as "symbols" of family life. What they want are ideal children, not real ones; and as soon as the real ones show no intention of conforming to the ideal in the parent's mind, they are treated as burdens, shipped away to school or otherwise neglected.”
Sydney J. Harris, The Best of Sydney J. Harris“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“When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'”
Sydney J. Harris“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“The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.”
Sydney J. Harris“Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.”
Sydney J. Harris“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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