Quotes About Cynicism

Diplomacy is the mercenary politeness of manipulators, modern culture consists of greedy hypocrisy, cynical myopia who value bad taste and obey herd instinct. The two-faced modern culture of politeness is a parody of indifference. Officially polite, but swearing in person, modern culture is a ghetto.

Modernity lives without love. Cynicism, sociopathy of commercialism, where inflation leads to mental impotence of indifference in solitude, where infantilism is the basis of idealism. The brain becomes a call center of indifference.

I start out by believing the worst

Sounds pretty bad. Are you sure about this?" "Oh, I'm sure." "Well, I don't know what we can do to prepare, except say our prayers." "Good luck with that, Herb. God died in 1945.

Every day of their lives they read the newspapers and went to the movies. Both fed them on lynchings, murder, sex crimes, explosions, wrecks, love nests, fires, miracles, revolutions, war. This daily diet made sophisticates of them. The sun is a joke. Oranges can't titillate their jaded palates. Nothing can ever be violent enough to make taut their slack minds and bodies. They have been cheated and betrayed. They have slaved and saved for nothing. Tod

That sounded a lot more appetizing than my aging cynicism, complete lack of interest in others, and lifetime of enthusiastic immersion in a culture that encourages you to look out for number one. Clearly, my best self was miles down the road.

Deliberately, she took a long drink. It wasn't as good as she remembered, but then little was. She caught herself in that thought and was ashamed. Cynicism was okay, bitterness a pain in the neck. The hairline difference between the two was hope and humor. The cynic had both, the embittered, nothing.

But he got to his feet, his brows contacted in a frown. "You weren't speaking seriously?" I moved towards the door, "It doesn't pay to be serious," I said. "It only means that people laugh behind your back, instead of to your face.

In May 1919 Berle, assuming the stagy veneer of cynicism of a disappointed crusader, wrote his father, "I have come to the conclusion that no statement of ideals by anybody will ever get any reaction from me again. If I can trust myself I shall be happy; if I trust anyone else I shall be a fool.

Believe me, I'm no romantic, and while I've heard all about love at first sight, I've never believed in it, and I still don't. But even so, there was something there, something recognizably real, and I couldn't look away.

T]he luminous and shocking beauty of the everyday is something I try to remain alert to, if only as an antidote to the chronic cynicism and disenchantment that seems to surround everything, these days. It tells me that, despite how debased or corrupt we are told humanity is and how degraded the world has become, it just keeps on being beautiful. It can't help it.

always expect the worst because in the end you wont be disappointed...

The newspaper collects the previous day's garbage in order to feed it to us for breakfast.

Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.

The Proletarian Cultural Revolution, ushered in with so much fanfare and promise for the Chinese masses, had not really changed their lives or given them new opportunities for development. The Chinese people continued to struggle against poverty, shortages, and lack of choice. The Cultural Revolution had merely created a new set of circumstances to which at least the young workers were adjusting with cynicism and audacity.

I shall laugh my bitter laugh.

the majority were of the species who, all the world over, look on the world and at everything that goes on in it and merely scratch their noses.

I had sucked on the tit of disillusionment and teethed on the bitter root of cynicism. I was on the way to the misanthropy that would sour me.

In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent.

The saddest day of your life isn't when you decide to sell out. The saddest day of your life is when you decide to sell out and nobody wants to buy.

Hay?r, sizi de sevmemeliyim. Çünkü her zaman oldu?u gibi hayal k?r?kl??? bekliyor beni. Gene gülünç olmaktan korkuyorum. (Sesini yükseltir.) ?nsafs?z insanlar! Hayat gözya??na bakm?yor. Oysa insanlar?n merhametine muhtac?m ben.

Do not trust the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you or I were going to be hanged.

Ma chi capisce tutto e tutti finisce con l'assolvere tutto e tutti. Chi assolve tutto e tutti finisce col perdonare tutto e tutti. Chi perdona tutto e tutti non crede a nulla. E chi non crede a nulla, mia cara, è un cinico. Tout court.

Yale philosopher Harry Frankfurt writes, "One of the salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.