Cynicism Quotes

I'm cynical about society, politics, newspapers, government. But I'm not cynical about life, love, goodness, death. That's why I really don't want to be labeled a cynic.

Its [Dreams from My Father] also a reflection about how we might start a better conversation in our democracy about how to solve problems, because it feels as if our political system - it just seems there is so much cynicism and negativity in our politics.

All love is betrayal, in that it flatters life. The loveless man is best armed.

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had any experience with them.

Gratitude is a lively sense of benefits to come.

I am not at all cynical, I have merely got experience, which, however, is very much the same thing.

The world sucks, people are not true

What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors - in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.

Someone once said, if you scratch a cynic, and you'll find a disappointed idealist. That really rang a bell with me - because I recognized that, within me, there is this flame, of wishing it were better, wishing people had better lives, that there was more of an authentic sharing and harmony with nature.

A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is uncomfortable to have unhappy people about one.

Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none. Beatrice: A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. -Much Ado About Nothing

An executive should be a realist; and no one is less realistic than the cynic.

What is the use of straining after an amiable view of things, when a cynical view is most likely to be the true one?.

Life is tough, then you die.

People don't love each other at our age, Marthe—they please each other, that's all. Later on, when you're old and impotent, you can love someone. At our age, you just think you do. That's all it is.

I see you're a man with ideals. I better be going before you've still got them.

There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

But do you know why we are always more just and generous toward the dead? The reason is simple. With them there is no obligation. They leave us free and we can take our time, fit the testimonial between a cocktail party and a nice little mistress, in our spare time, in short.

In order to become a great man, one must first be a great rascal.

If you want to get on in this world make many promises, but don't keep them.

The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.

Lawyers, Preachers, and Tomtits Eggs, there are more of them hatch'd than come to perfection.

In politics, an absurdity in public business is going into it.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

If we took Congress seriously, we would be worrying all the time.

To be famous, in fact, one has only to kill one's landlady.

The proper basis for marriage is mutual misunderstanding. The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married. One should always be in love - that's the reason one should never marry.

If you have a radio, the next three months is a good time to have it quit working. All you will hear from now until the 4th of November will be: 'We must get our government out of the hands of predatory wealth.' 'The good people of this great country are burdened to death with taxes. Now what I intend to do is ...' What he intends to do is try and get elected. That's all any of them intend to do. Another one that will hum over the old static every night will be: 'This country has reached a crisis in its national existence.'

Skin diseases are something doctors like, the patient neither dies nor gets well.

The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.

Duty is what one expects from others.

IAGO: She that was ever fair and never proud, Had tongue at will and yet was never loud, Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay, Fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may,' She that being anger'd, her revenge being nigh, Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly, She that in wisdom never was so frail To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail; She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind, See suitors following and not look behind, She was a wight, if ever such wight were,-- DESDEMONA: To do what? IAGO: To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.

Capital punishment has probably been responsible for a good deal of human progress. The overwhelming majority of those executed were of the sort whose departures for bliss eternal improved the average intelligence and decency of the race.

It is a law of nature that every decent man on earth is bound to be a coward and a slave

Men become old, but they never become good.

I tell you folks, all politics is applesauce.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything, and doesn't know the market place of any single thing.

Cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach honesty.

We all joke about Congress but we can't improve on them. Have you noticed that no matter who we elect, he is just as bad as the one he replaces?

Better a broken promise than none at all.

Well, I will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste man.

The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married.

[Government] is apprehended, not as a committee of citizens chosen to carry on the communal business of the whole population, but as a separate and autonomous corporation, mainly devoted to exploiting the population for the benefit of its own members.

A friend is nothing but a known enemy.

Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom.

Console yourself by remembering that the world doesn't deserve your affection.

Blood's not thicker than money.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

Each of us must work to become a hardheaded realist, or else we risk wasting our time and energy on pursuing impossible dreams. Yet constant naysayers pursue no less impossible dreams. Their fear and cynicism move nothing forward. They kill progress. How many cynics built empires, great cities, or powerful corporations?

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

You know, [women] do not really condemn any weakness: rather, they try to humiliate or disarm our strengths. That is why women arethe reward, not of the warrior, but of the criminal.

I don't suppose there's a man going, as possesses the fondness for youth that I do. There's youth to the amount of eight hundredpound a-year, at Dotheboys Hall at this present time. I'd take sixteen hundred pound worth, if I could get 'em, and be as fond of every individual twenty pound among 'em as nothing should equal it!

By elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.

Crocodiles have a smile I've seen on the face of every lawyer I've ever met.

You know very well that I no longer think. I am far too intelligent for that.

I make a living off (politicians), so I can't knock 'em. Every time we elect some fellow we think he's terrible and then when we get another one in he's worse. So, I am always in favor of keeping the one we've got and let the other go.

You do not lament the loss of hair of one who has been beheaded.

Assume the worst. About everybody. But don't let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt asshole shouldn't prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them or finding them entertaining.