Sydney J. Harris Quotes

The worst cliques are those which consist of one man.

You learn more about a person from the people around that person than you do from the person themselves. We all have our own ideas of who we are that may or may not be justified, and you can really find out a heck of a lot more accurately from the people around an individual.

Dog parks are more cliquish than any other human gathering with the possible exception of seventh grade. Deal with it.

I'm not really part of any group or clique or gang because that's always been my nature.

If there are two hundred people in a room and one of them doesn't like me, I've got to get out.

I work alone. Humans are incredible, because when you come alone, they will receive you, they accept you, they protect you, they give you all things that you need, and they teach you all things you must know. When you come with two persons or three persons, you have a group in front of them. They don't discuss with the new persons what is important to them.

The system is very well regulated in L.A. It's designed to disconnect you from whatever your idea of yourself is. If you're among devils and they realise you're not a devil like they are, there's gonna be some great discomfort.

I was a loner; I spent the first half of high school alone.

The party is defined by the people that are in it, not necessarily the politicians.

The chemistry at a table is so important. You must start with a carefully balanced mix of personalities. If the balance is off, and the stakes are too big for some of the players, it kills the game. Too small, and everybody gets bored.

There is power in having a friend group because you have this bond that helps you navigate girl world, and it creates safety and self-esteem. But if you speak up to the leader, you risk that social isolation or not having a group and feeling really left out.

I find small talk exhausting, and I don't like myself when I'm around people.

It's just that I learned a while ago that the best way to get people to like you is not to like them too much.

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In the place of their self-content; There are souls like stars that dwell apart, In a fellowless firmament; There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where highways never ran,-- But let me live by the side of the road, And be a friend to man.

Normally seven minutes of another person's company was enough to give her a headache so she set things up to live as a recluse. She was perfectly content as long as people left her in peace. Unfortunately society was not very smart or understanding.

I've never been the type of guy that had a lot of friends or was part of the cool group.

Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name.

Society is the picnic certain individuals leave early, the party they fail to enjoy, the musical comedy they find not worth the price of admission.

As for 'drawing you out,' please believe I don't do such things deliberately, with an object -- It's only that I am, as a rule, far more interested in people than they are in me -- But it makes me a nuisance, I know: only an innocent nuisance.

Your friends may love you in private but your enemies will hate you in public.

I have my own way of dividing people, as I suppose most of us have. There are those whom I can talk to, and those whom I can't.

More and more do I feel, as I advance in life, how little we really know of each other. Friendship seems to me like the touch of musical-glasses--it is only contact; but the glasses themselves, and their contents, remain quite distinct and unmingled.

Ever man is eternally alone. But when you get mixed up with a fairly decent crowd, you forget that appalling fact for long enough to give your brain time to recover from the acute symptoms of its disease - that of thinking.

no one in a group of three is the same person he (she, it) is in a group of two. No more than he is the same in a group of two as he is alone.

This is the thing they don't tell you about being a third wheel - it's not like you're the wheel that's added on. You were one of the original two wheels, but suddenly you're not so important anymore. The relationship drives fine without you.