Sydney J. Harris: Making

“Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith.”

Sydney J. Harris

“Atheists, Like Fundamentalists, are Dogmatic”
Pieces of Eight (1982)
Context: Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason; because, though rational argument may take us to the edge of belief, we require a "leap of faith" to jump the chasm.

Truth , Faith , Universe

“Everyone admits that "the truth hurts" but no one applies this adage to himself — and as soon as it begins to hurt us, we quickly repudiate it and call it a lie. It is this tendency toward self-deception (more than any active sin) that makes human progress slow and almost imperceptible.”

Sydney J. Harris

On the Contrary (1964)

Truth , Lie , Hurt

“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.”

Sydney J. Harris

"Purely Personal Prejudices"
Strictly Personal (1953)

Faith , Religion

“Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught.”

Sydney J. Harris

Chicago Daily News (February 20, 1958)

Winter , Summer

“We are just beginning to learn that our same old habits, like the exploitation of nonrenewable resources, may make us at one with the auk and the dodo.”

Sydney J. Harris

"What is 'The Fittest'?" http://books.google.com/books?id=NzNpn-cojqYC&q=%22We+are+just+beginning+to+learn+that+our+same+old+habits+like+the+exploitation+of+nonrenewable+resources+may+make+us+at+one+with+the+auk+and+the+dodo%22&pg=PA118#v=onepage, syndicated (3 September 1980) http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Kf8cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=so4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2474,200754
Pieces of Eight (1982)

Learning

“Superior people are only those who let it be discovered by others; the need to make it evident forfeits the very virtue they aspire to.”

Sydney J. Harris

Pieces of Eight (1982)

People

“The beauty of “spacing” children many years apart lies in the fact that parents have time to learn the mistakes that were made with the older ones — which permits them to make exactly the opposite mistakes with the younger ones.”

Sydney J. Harris

Leaving the Surface (1968)

For Parents , Children , Beauty , Parent