Authors: Editors of Reader's Digest
â
W
ILLIAM
W
HARTON
Tidings
Â
I don't like a man to be efficient. He's likely to be not human enough.
â
F
ELIX
F
RANKFRUTER
Â
When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that three of his fingers are pointing at himself.
â
A
NONYMOUS
Â
Ought is not a word we use to other people. It is a word we should reserve for ourselves.
â
S
ISTER
W
ENDY
B
ECKETT
Â
Perhaps no phenomenon contains so much destructive feeling as “moral indignation,” which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.
â
E
RICH
F
ROMM
Â
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
â
M
OTHER
T
ERESA OF
C
ALCUTTA
Â
Speak not against anyone whose burden you have not weighed yourself.
â
M
ARION
B
RADLEY
Black Trillium
Â
Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
â
H
.
L
.
M
ENCKEN
Â
This is a do-it-yourself test for paranoia: you know you've got it when you can't think of anything that's your fault.
â
R
OBERT
M
.
H
UTCHINS
Â
That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.
â
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON
Â
We all have weaknesses. But I have figured that others have put up with mine so tolerantly that I would be less than fair not to make a reasonable discount for theirs.
â
W
ILLIAM
A
LLEN
W
HITE
Â
We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.
â
H
AROLD
N
ICOLSON
Â
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
â
F
RIEDRICH
N
IETZSCHE
Â
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.
â
M
ARK
T
WAIN
Â
Our faults irritate us most when we see them in others.
â
P
ENNSYLVANIA
D
UTCH PROVERB
Â
The enthusiastic, to those who are not, are always something of a trial.
â
A
LBAN
G
OODIER
Â
There is little room left for wisdom when one is full of judgment.
â
M
ALCOLM
H
EIN
Â
Nothing in the world is so rare as a person one can always put up with.
â
G
IACOMO
L
EOPARDI
Â
When nobody around you seems to measure up, it's time to check your yardstick.
â
B
ILL
L
EMLEY
Â
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
â
A
BRAHAM
L
INCOLN
Â
There are certain small faults that offset great virtues. There are certain great faults that are forgotten in small virtues.
â
G
RANTLAND
R
ICE
W
ATTS
Â
Accept me as I amâonly then will we discover each other.
â
F
ROM
F
EDERICO
F
ELLINI'S
8 1/2
Â
The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudices.
â
C
LINT
E
ASTWOOD
Â
Nothing dies so hard, or rallies so often, as intolerance.
â
H
ENRY
W
ARD
B
EECHER
Â
Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.
â
C
OUNTESS OF
B
LESSINGTON
Â
Prejudice is a disease characterized by hardening of the categories.
â
W
ILLIAM
A
RTHUR
Â
A prejudice is a vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
â
A
MBROSE
B
IERCE
Â
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
â
H
ENRY
D
AVID
T
HOREAU
Â
Every bigot was once a child free of prejudice.
â
S
ISTER
M
ARY
D
E
L
OURDES
Â
Too many of our prejudices are like pyramids upside down. They rest on tiny, trivial incidents, but they spread upward and outward until they fill our minds.
â
W
ILLIAM
M
C
C
HESNEY
M
ARTIN
Â
S
TUPIDITY WON'T KILL YOUÂ
. . .
Â
Stupidity won't kill you, but it can make you sweat.
â
E
NGLISH PROVERB
Â
Ignorance is not blissâit is oblivion.
â
P
HILIP
W
YLIE
Â
I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
â
E
DITH
S
ITWELL
Â
The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.
â
D
ANIEL
J
.
B
OORSTIN
The Discoverers
Â
Ignorance is bold, and knowledge reserved.
â
T
HUCYDIDES
Â
The trouble with most folks isn't so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain't so.
â
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS
Â
Sometimes the best way to convince someone he is wrong is to let him have his way.
â
R
ED
O
'
D
ONNELL
Â
Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
â
W
ILL
R
OGERS
Â
Nothing will divide this nation more than ignorance, and nothing can bring us together better than an educated population.
â
J
OHN
S
CULLEY
in
The Atlantic
Â
Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.
â
M
ERRY
B
ROWNE
in
National Enquirer
Â
Fears are educated into us and can, if we wish, be educated out.
â
K
ARL
A
.
M
ENNINGER,
MD
The Human Mind
Â
The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
â
S
IMONE
W
EIL
Â
I
F MALICE OR ENVY WERE TANGIBLEÂ
. . .
Â
It is never wise to seek or wish for another's misfortune. If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.
â
C
HARLEY
R
EESE
Â
Spite is never lonely; envy always tags along.
â
M
IGNON
M
C
L
AUGHLIN
Â
Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.
â
H
AROLD
C
OFFIN
Â
Do not believe those persons who say they have never been jealous. What they mean is that they have never been in love.
â
G
ERALD
B
RENAN
Â
Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.
â
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS
Â
Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.
â
E
RICA
J
ONG
Â
I'd never try to learn from someone I didn't envy at least a little. If I never envied, I'd never learn.
â
B
ETSY
C
OHEN
The Snow White Syndrome
Â
T
HE CHAINS OF HABITÂ
. . .
Â
The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken
.
â
S
AMUEL
J
OHNSON
Â
Good habits are as easy to form as bad ones.
â
T
IM
M
C
C
ARVER
Â
Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.
â
S
PANISH PROVERB
Â
Comfort comes as a guest, lingers to become a host and stays to enslave us.
â
L
EE
S
.
B
ICKMORE
Â
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
â
M
ARK
T
WAIN
Â
A habit is a shirt made of iron.
â
H
AROLD
H
ELFER
Â
Habits are like supervisors that you don't notice.
â
H
ANNES
M
ESSEMER
Â
We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure.
â
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS
Â
Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.
â
S
T.
A
UGUSTINE
Â
It is easy to assume a habit; but when you try to cast it off, it will take skin and all.
â
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS
Â
A habit is something you can do without thinkingâwhich is why most of us have so many of them.
â
F
RANK
A
.
C
LARK
Â
The best way to break a habit is to drop it.
â
L
EO
A
IKMAN
Â
A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it's an undo-it-yourself project.
â
A
BIGAIL
V
AN
B
UREN
Â
N
EVER BE HAUGHTY . . .
Â
Never be haughty to the humble. Never be humble to the haughty.
â
J
EFFERSON
D
AVIS
Â
None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.
â
B
ENJAMIN
W
HICHCOTE
Â
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
â
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON
Â
He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.
â
L
EONARDO DA
V
INCI
Â
The question we do not see when we are young is whether we own pride or are owned by it.
â
J
OSEPHINE
J
OHNSON
The Dark Traveler
Â
If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed.
â
The Wedded Unmother
Â
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.
â“Thought for the Day,” BBC Radio
Â
When someone sings his own praises, he always gets the tune too high.
â
M
ARY
H
.
W
ALDRIP
Â
Vanity is the result of a delusion that someone is paying attention.
â
P
AUL
E
.
S
WEENEY
Â
Oh, for a pin that would puncture pretension!
âI
SAAC
A
SIMOV
Buy Jupiter and Other Stories
Â
Men often mistake notoriety for fame, and would rather be remarked for their vices and follies than not be noticed at all.
â
H
ARRY
S
.
T
RUMAN
Â
It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.