Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people? — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught. — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring. — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
Much as a teacher may wince at the thought, he is also an entertainer—for unless he can hold his audience, he cannot… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
At it's highest level, the purpose of teaching is not to teach—it is to inspire the desire for learning. Once a student's… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
“Experience can be a very bad teacher, indeed, or not teacher at all. It is like the silly phrase, “Practice makes perfect.”… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
“The most worthwhile form of education is the kind that puts the educator inside you, as it were, so that the appetite… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
A university is not, primarily, a place in which to learn how to make a living; it is a place in which… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share Image
This is a lesson mankind has not yet learned. We identify, and stratify, and treat persons largely on the basis of their accidental (physical)… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, 'Why not?' and the other, 'Why bother?' — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
The profound immoralities of our time are cruelty, indifference, injustice and the use of others as means rather than ends in themselves. — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
Marriages we regard as the happiest are those in which each of the partners believes he or she got the best of it. — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
“...it calls for deciding things on their own merit, not because you read it or were told it or grew up believing it.” — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, his is also one who is permanently disappointed in the future. — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
Time is love, above all else. It is the most precious commodity in the world and should be lavished on those we care most… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
“The cynic is goodhearted beneath his facade, whereas the sentimentalist is flint-hearted beneath his.” — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
“Like all persecuted minority groups, they strike back by forming cabals, by “taking over” certain spheres of activity (in the arts, for instance), and… — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting. — Sydney J. Harris Copy Share
