#ra

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#asking #democracy #only #ought #persists

Ninety per cent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves - so how can we know anyone else? ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#anyone #cent #comes #complete #else

Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance. ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#ignorance #nearly #per

Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one. ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#fills #knowledge #large #merely #small

Somebody who never got over the embarrassing fact that he was born in bed with a lady. ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#born #embarrassing #fact #got #lady

Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice. ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#effective #idea #into #kill #only

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face. ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#argument #being #escape #face #gracefully

If I write in my name to the agents of England and France residing in Asia and inform them that Japan is ready to make a commercial treaty with their countries, the number of steamers will be reduced from fifty to two or three. ↗

— Townsend Harris

#asia #commercial #countries #england #fifty

If Japan had been near to either England or France, war would have broken out long ago. ↗

— Townsend Harris

#been #broken #either #england #france

If you make a treaty first with the United States and settle the matter of the opium trade, England cannot change this, though she should desire to do so. ↗

— Townsend Harris

#change #desire #england #first #make