Sydney J. Harris Quotes

I couldn't play off people that I don't personally like.

There must be some good in the cocktail party to account for its immense vogue among otherwise sane people.

To get fifty people to a cocktail party in New York, you ask one hundred. In Hollywood, you invite twenty.

There's some people who are just very dynamic about social life, and it can be some pretty crazy stuff, but you end up meeting people you like.

In my opinion when you speak about relationships between people, you are actually talking about everything in their world because everything is contained in that relationship.

At a certain age just being around particular people is an event.

Large cocktail parties are an infamous technique for ridding yourself of social obligations to people you usually don't know well or like much, which is such an unpromising beginning that I've rarely known one that recovered and turned into a great party.

The only problem with seeing people you know is that they know you.

I find it very hard to believe that people would prefer an awkward picture with me than a normal conversation.

For the record, do I know anyone not a demon or a freak?” – Nick “Yes, you do. Not sure if Bubba and Mark go into the latter or not, though. I’m too tired to mentally categorize them. You figure it out, and I’ll go with your Dewey decimal.” – Caleb

I find people confusing.

Of course I don't want to go to a cocktail party...If I wanted to stand around with a load of people I don't know eating bits of cold toast I can get caught shoplifting and go to Holloway [women's prison].

I don't give parties, and I'm not in that social scene. I couldn't care less.

My big thing is people. I just love people in my life.

Surprise parties are strange 'cause people jump up and they yell the word, 'surprise' at the party. I came home and you emerged from my furniture. You don't have to tell me how to feel. I don't need a hint.

You have to understand, writing a novel gets very weird and invisible-friend-from-childhood-ish. Then you kill that thing, which was never really alive except in your imagination, and you're supposed to go buy groceries and talk to people at parties and stuff.

Coquettes are, but too rare. It is a career that requires great abilities, infinite pains, a gay and airy spirit. 'T is the coquette who provides all the amusements,--suggests the riding-party, plans the picnic, gives and guesses charades, acts them. She is the stirring element amid the heavy congeries of social atoms,--the soul of the house, the salt of the banquet.

One can never have too large a party.

When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.

What we know of other people's only our memory of the moments during which we knew them.

At the same time, though, I was beginning to wonder if this was just how it was supposed to be for me, like perhaps I wasn't capable of having that many people in my life at any one time. My mom turned up, Nate walked away, one door opening as another clicked shut.

People may think I'm wildly obnoxious.

Cocktail party: A gathering held to enable forty people to talk about themselves at the same time. The man who remains after the liquor is gone is the host.

To be able to play and get loads of people together is really cool.

If you’re aggressive in your dealings, that’s how you’ll be regarded in the world. You might smile and give generously, but if you frequently explode in anger, people never feel comfortable in your presence and you’ll never have peace of mind.