Evan Esar Quotes

Wise is the man who does not disdain any character and instead, examining him with a searching look, plumbs him to the very main-springs of his being.

How can one know anything at all about people?

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.

Every man is a volume if you know how to read him.

Sometimes we can't see our own selves, our own shortcomings, but it's so easy to see somebody else's.

It's easy to see the faults in people I know; it's hardest to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there.

Everyone complains of his memory, but no one complains of his judgment.

O, would some Power give us, To see ourselves as others see us!

Some people have more sense than other people think they have.

A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.

But wise is the man who disdains no character, but with searching glance explores him to the root and cause of all.

You see in others who you are.

It is easy to be wise on behalf of others than to be so for ourselves.

Just as much as we see in others we have in ourselves.

The wisest among us is a fool in some things.

All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else.

As I come to understand Vietnam and what it implies about the human condition, I also realize that few humans will permit themselves such an understanding.

The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

We are all wise for other people, none for himself.

each of us only feels the torn lining of his own coat and sees the wholeness of the other person's.

A quick and sound judgment, good common sense, kind feeling, and an instinctive perception of character, in these are the elements of what is called tact, which has so much to do with acceptability and success in life.

All we have to do is listen. The Good Lord gave us two ears and only one mouth, my dear white-headed mother used to say.

The essence of intelligence was to know when, or if, to expose even the heart's deep need for instruction.

Few men have depth enough to hear or tell the truth.

Most people are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others, frightfully objective sometimes--but the task is precisely to be objective toward oneself and subjective toward all others.