“The acceptance of ambiguity implies more than the commonplace understanding that some good things and some bad things happen to us. It means that we know that good and evil are inextricably intermixed in human affairs; that they contain, and sometimes embrace, their opposites; that success may involve failure of a different kind, and failure may be a kind of triumph.”
“Learning to Live with Ambiguity”
Clearing the Ground (1986)
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Sydney J. Harris 44
American journalist 1917–1986Related quotes
“A success that has outlived its usefulness may, in the end, be more damaging than failure.”
Source: 1960s - 1980s, MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Part 1, p. 159
The Use of Life (1894), ch. IV: Recreation
“There is no evil in human affairs that has not some good mingled with it.”
Non è male alcuno nelle cose umane che non abbia congiunto seco qualche bene.
Storia d' Italia (1537-1540)
“There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
Quoted by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, The Use of Life, chapter IV: "Recreation" (1894).
See You at the Top (2000)
Variant: Failure is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.
Grace Zabriskie: Methodical Madness https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/grace-zabriskie-methodical-madness-42678/ (June 26, 2001)
Memo to his staff announcing that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. (April 2005)