logo

Quotes About Cynicism

Our line of work is very cynical, and a lot of it is driven by cynicism, cruelty, and meanness. It's easier to believe the negative stuff than the positive stuff. The feel-good stories don't usually spend a lot of time on the front pages.
~ Shawn Michaels
Comedy is based partly on mean-spiritedness.
~ Nipsey Russell
Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist — someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations.
~ Peter Senge
Cynicism is enlightened false consciousness. It is that modernized, unhappy consciousness, on which enlightenment has labored both successfully and in vain. It has learned its lessons in enlightenment, but it has not, and probably was not able to, put them into practice. Well-off and miserable at the same time, this consciousness no longer feels affected by any critique of ideology; its falseness is already reflexively buffered.
~ Peter Sloterdijk
Din marele elan al transform?rii egalitariste a umanit??ii nu a r?mas, pân? la urm?, mult mai mult decât autoprivilegierea nedisimulat? a funcÈ›ionarilor – ca s? nu mai vorbim de paralizia, resemnarea È™i cinismul pe care le-a l?sat moÈ™tenire.
~ Peter Sloterdijk
Comforting lies get far too easy with practice.
~ Peter Watts
If "Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted," then there is no purpose or grand cosmic scheme to life beyond what we choose to impose or believe. To some this is cynicism. For the Chaos Magician, it is a breath of dizzying freedom.
~ Phil Hine
Richard, aside from hanging out with Mike, became a loner. He didn't trust people or like them particularly. He perceived society as unfair, vicious, and hostile.
~ Philip Carlo
Before I knew that a man could kill a man, because it happens all the time. Now I know that even the person with whom you've shared food, or whom you've slept, even he can kill you with no trouble. The closest neighbor can kill you with his teeth: that is what I have Learned since the genocide, and my eyes no longer gaze the same on the face of the world.
~ Philip G Zimbardo
I don't like people--much. This kind, I mean. And they don't like me at all, as a rule. Maybe the latter explains the former.
~ Philip Wylie
I quickly laugh at everything, for fear of having to cry.
~ Pierre de Beaumarchais
All our lives are miraculous if only we are willing to view them that way. The world keeps on pulsing new amazements, providing a constant series of epiphanies, illuminations, peak experiences. If, out of inattention, cynicism or a moribund view of the world, we don't respond to the wondrous, then we get what we expect: a confirmation that life is unsurprising.
~ Pierre Delattre
Scepticism is a necessary and vital part of the journalist's toolkit. But when scepticism becomes cynicism it can close off thought and block the search for truth.
~ Jeremy Paxman
What I'm asking for is hard. It's easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn't possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don't matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.
~ Barack Obama
What we need in medical schools is not to teach empathy, as much as to preserve it - the process of learning huge volumes of information about disease, of learning a specialized language, can ironically make one lose sight of the patient one came to serve; empathy can be replaced by cynicism.
~ Abraham Verghese
Let's stop hiding behind a pseudo-respect of cultures, in a sickening relativism that's only a mask for our cowardice, our cynicism, and our powerlessness. I, born Muslim, Moroccan, and French, I will say it to you: Sharia makes me vomit.
~ Leila Slimani
I wasn't thrilled about 'The Sound Of Music' - not the movie itself but my role in it. Captain Von Trapp was a bore, and they tried to help by giving it a bit more cynicism, but it wasn't my favourite role. I enjoyed the music, and I loved Julie Andrews.
~ Christopher Plummer
To bolster his right flank and attract women voters, John McCain had cynically opted for a running mate who was, by any stretch of the imagination, unqualified for a position a heartbeat away from the presidency.
~ Jay Parini
In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.
~ Spiro T. Agnew
Whenever you hear a politician start a sentence with, "If we can put a man on the moon . . . ," grab your wallet.
~ Jonah Goldberg
You shouldn't take notice of anything that Henry tells you, you know,' he now says, with a chilly smile. 'After all, he is a politician.
~ Jonathan Coe
I've learned not to trust what I see on television.
~ Jonathan Lethem
Mrs. Neverbody's Recipe for Making Crocodile Tears To a slice of hanky-panky Add some artificial cranky. Moisten well with canned boo-hoo. Flavor with a spoof or two. Drip this slowly—as it falls Roll it into little bawls. If you're careful, while they're cooling You can spread on only-fooling. (This recipe is not worthwhile Unless you are a crocodile.)
~ Jonathan Lethem
That's stupid. That's people.
~ Jonathan Maberry