Sydney J. Harris
Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble.
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.
When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'
Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.