"Almost no one is foolish enough to imagine that he automatically deserves great success in any field of activity; yet almost everyone believes that he automatically deserves success in marriage."

Rating:

  rate this quote
Topic: none  help us select a topic for this quote

More quotes from: Sydney J. Harris

• "A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is ..."
• "A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty ..."
• "An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't ..."
• "Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there. "
• "Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they ..."
• "Enemies, as well as lovers, come to resemble each other over a period of time. "
• "Every morning I take out my bankbook, stare at it, shudder-and turn quickly to my ..."
• "Happiness is a direction, not a place. "
• "If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate ..."
• "If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, "You ..."
• "Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance. "
• "In shape, it is perfectly elliptical. In texture, it is smooth and lustrous. In color, ..."
• "Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume ..."
• "It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward ..."
• "Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one. "
• "Many a secret that cannot be pried out by curiosity can be drawn out by ..."
• "Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men. "
• "Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, ..."
• "Ninety per cent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, ..."
• "Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their ..."
• "Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an ..."

• "Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next ..."
• "Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what ..."
• "People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault. "
• "Perseverance is the most overrated of traits, if it is unaccompanied by talent; beating your ..."
• "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for ..."
• "Somebody who never got over the embarrassing fact that he was born in bed with ..."
• "Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it ..."
• "The beauty of "spacing" children many years apart lies in the fact that parents have ..."
• "The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress. "
• "The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an ..."
• "The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that ..."
• "The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but ..."
• "The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. "
• "The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different ..."
• "The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. "
• "There's no point in burying a hatchet if you're going to put up a marker ..."
• "We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until... we have stopped ..."
• "When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared ..."
• "When we have 'second thoughts' about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at ..."
• "When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he ..."