General philosophy
Every experience in life is a test, and therefore should be welcomed.
In so many conflicts, the real battle is not with our enemies; it takes place within ourselves.
(Welcomat,1984.)
Yesterday's liberal ideas are today's conservative ideas. What seems liberal today will seem conservative tomorrow.
In any issue, the critical question is: Compared to what? Smoking may be bad for people, but if you take away their cigarettes
they may turn to even more harmful artificial stimulants, like drugs and booze. Guns may be dangerous, but the absence of
guns may put the physically weak at the mercy of the physically strong. The mass media may be irresponsible, but the absence
of mass media produced pogroms, witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition.
Change may be difficult, but it's also inevitable.
(Philadelphia Inquirer, January 29, 1993.)
Four years in a therapy group taught me that anger has little to do with the situation at hand and everything to do with one’s
early childhood.
(Broad Street Review, 2008.)
The media
A good editor keeps his bags packed. He should treat every issue as if it is his first, as well as his last.
At any publication, when the writers begin expending more creativity on internal memos than on the publication itself, that
publication is in trouble.
People who complain about “media bias” are usually more biased than the media they complain about.
The power of public figures and their departures from power are rarely as dramatic as our celebrity-hungry society likes to
believe.
(Philadelphia Inquirer, August 21, 1979. )
A broad canyon separates the public images and the private realities of most celebrities. Arthur Fiedler was a grouch, Kennedy
was a womanizer, Lawrence Welk is a hard-headed businesssman and Dean Martin rarely drinks.
(Philadelphia Inquirer,
August 21, 1979.)
Why is the world so screwed up? Because the people with knowledge (like academicians) don't know how to communicate, and the
people who know how to communicate (like journalists) don't know anything.
information is like medicine: It does no good unless people swallow it. (Broad Street Review, 2006).
The trouble with TV is, you don’t have to think in order to watch it. By contrast, even a tabloid newspaper or a pornographic
novel requires you to exercise your mind by converting abstract symbols— letters— into words and sentences. (Broad
Street Review, 2006).
Publications, like people, are never fully formed at birth. They evolve over time in fascinating and totally unexpected directions.
(Letter to Philadelphia Weekly, February 6, 2002).
Business
The more effective the business leader, the more disastrous the family leader.
Most financial and legal issues spring from emotional roots. That being the case, often you're better off hiring a therapist
than a lawyer. (The Inheritor's Handbook.)
When anyone quits a job over a principle, usually you'll find other considerations involved as well.
The minute employees of any company start saying to themselves, “I've got a job for life,” that company's days
are numbered. (Welcomat, March 6, 1985.)
In the age of technology, the latest bird gets the worm, and the early bird becomes outdated. (Revolution On Wall Street,
p. 253.)
The more seamless the business family appears on the outside, the greater the trauma inside. (Family Business, Autumn
2008.)
The mark of a good professional is his willingness to exercise his best independent judgment in behalf of his client or his
employer, even to his own short-term detriment. (Broad Street Review, November 18, 2008.)
Technology
People who are perfectly comfortable with technology that was new when they were kids feel terribly threatened by technology
that’s new when their children are kids. (Broad Street Review, December 27, 2011.)
Politics
In politics, the right things often happen for the wrong reasons.
(Philadelphia Inquirer, February 6, 1993.)
Making war— complicated as it may be— is in fact the easiest task a government can perform. It pales beside the
challenge of making peace or housing the homeless or eliminating bigotry or ignorance or drugs.
(Welcomat, January
23, 1991.)
The sexes
The essential difference between men and women: Men need to have sex in order to feel good; women need to feel good in order
to have sex.
(Broad Street Review, July 2006.)
