If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?
Interpretation
The quote suggests that letting small things upset you reflects inner weaknesses or insecurities.
This quote by Sydney J. Harris encourages self-reflection on our emotional reactions. It implies that if trivial matters can provoke significant anger, it brings attention to one's personal vulnerabilities, suggesting that the real issue lies within rather than in external circumstances. Instead of blaming the minor irritations in life, one should examine themselves and their responses to better understand their character and growth potential.
In practice
During a team meeting to discuss workplace challenges.
A person is either himself or not himself; is either rooted in his existence or is a fabrication; has either found his humanhood or is still playing with masks and roles and status symbols. And nobody is more aware of this difference (although unconsciously) than a child. Only an authentic person can evoke a good response in the core of the other person; only person is resonant to person.
We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion.
The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes them a mother - which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician.
Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.
"Terrorism" is what we call the violence of the weak, and we condemn it; "war" is what we call the violence of the strong, and we glorify it.
At it's highest level, the purpose of teaching is not to teachβit is to inspire the desire for learning. Once a student's mind is set on fire, it will find a way to provide its own fuel.
This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself.
Wrong life cannot be lived rightly.
We've learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.
Can a man of perception respect himself at all?
A life is measured by how it is lived for the sake of heaven.
Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.
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