Random thoughts on diverse subjects

• If speakers were compelled to talk before dinner, rather than after, we could all attend banquets with a lighter heart, for nothing induces brevity more than an empty stomach.

• When a person appears before the Throne of Judgment, the first question he is asked is not, “Have you believed in God?” or “Have you prayed and observed the ritual?” – but, “Have you dealt honourably with your fellow man?” Talmud

• In her last illness, my mother took my hand in hers tightly: for the first time I knew how callused a hand it was, and how soft was mine. Charles Reznikoff

• The person who approaches me at a gathering and says rather belligerently, “I bet you don’t remember me,” is generally the kind of person I don’t want to remember. He is brother to the nitwit who grins at me ominously with the challenge, “What’s my name?”

• A question for the United Nations: How can two countries understand or empathize with each other when in one most of the adults are starving and, in the other, most are dieting?

• How many travellers would bother to take trips if they were bound to a vow of silence about the venture upon their return?

• We take it as a compliment when told that we haven’t changed a bit in 20 years. Is it really a compliment? I want my face and bearing to show some signs of the struggle for self-mastery over the years. A smooth porcelain face is a delight at 20, a rebuke at 40 and a mask of defeat at 80. Sydney J. Harris

• There seems to be so much more evil than good in the world because evil is a short-term infection, while goodness is a long-term influence; thus, it is always easier to see the dramatic effects of evil than the lengthening consequences of goodness.

• The most explosive combination in the world consists of sincerity added to ignorance; or prejudice wedded to power.

• Don’t feel inferior if you’re confused by current events. It’s a mark of intelligence; only the extremely simple-minded aren’t confused by the complexity of modern problems.

• We have conquered most of the contagious diseases of the body, but we have scarcely begun to combat the contagious diseases of the mind – prejudice, bigotry and hate – which have shattered more societies than all the viruses ever known to civilization.

• Everyone is a prisoner of his own pernicious experiences. They cannot be eliminated. But it is essential to recognize and acknowledge them in order to overcome them. Sydney J. Harris

• An egoist has been described as a person of low taste who is more interested in himself than in me. Most of our personal anxieties come from over-concern with what others will think of us. We fail to realize that others are too busy thinking of themselves to worry about evaluating us.

• It is probably true that many men and women patiently waiting in line at the Royal Ontario Museum to view fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls can’t remember the last time they opened the Bible.

• My idea of real self-control is not merely giving up smoking – but giving up smoking and talking about it.

• One of the rarely considered advantages of growing old is the freedom to tell the absolute truth about anything to anybody; and it is distressing that so few old people take advantage of this liberty.

This is because older people develop tact, which means to criticize privately, to avoid a dictatorial voice and to know when to avoid arguments. Tact has been defined as the ability to give a person a shot in the arm without letting him feel the needle.

• Why do survivors of a mass tragedy usually praise God for the miracle of their survival, but forget all of those who are allowed to perish by a seemingly unconcerned deity?