Cynicism Quotes

Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up faster.

Noelle Oxenhandler

And introduce an element of cynicism and darkness into it and just realize that we're all vulnerable. We are humans. There is a finite end to this life and we're all going to face it and a little silliness can help.

Alan Thicke

Nobody is driven by abstractions like 'seeking truth.

Michael Crichton

The world didn't give a shit. It didn't bestow. It took

Dennis Lehane

Where there had been hope, there was now hopelessness. Where there had been courage, there was now cynicism. Where there had been life, there was a living death. During Nixon's reign, much of life was transformed into a nightmare.

Pierre Stephen Robert Payne

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

Friedrich Nietzsche

Jake was close to tears. In that moment he saw the world in its true light, as a place where nothing had ever been any good and nothing of significance done: no art worth a second look, no philosophy of the slightest appositeness, no law but served the state, no history that gave an inkling of how it had been and what had happened. And no love, only egotism, infatuation and lust.

Kingsley Amis

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

Lillian Hellman

Cynicism is tough. A cynic's point of view is really pitiful. I derive pleasure out of a lot of things in life. As long as I'm fairly healthy, it's hard to stay dismal for very long.

Shawn Colvin

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing. Money suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. . . . And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money. I Corinthians xiii (adapted)

George Orwell

Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I'm a hopeful cynic.

Tracy Chapman

A cynic is just a man who found out when he was ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset.

James G. Cozzens

I worry that no matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.

Jane Wagner

I am skeptical in principle, gullible in practice.

Mason Cooley

The cynic, a parasite of civilization, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail.

Jos

Laughing at someone else is an excellent way of learning how to laugh at oneself; and questioning what seem to be the absurd beliefs of another group is a good way of recognizing the potential absurdity of many of one's own cherished beliefs.

Gore Vidal

Cynicism is intellectual dandyism.

George Meredith

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

H. L. Mencken

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

H. L. Mencken