Quotes About Cynicism

Cynicism and foul language are the only vices I'm presently capable of. Everything else takes energy or money.

Honey," Bessie's mamma used to say, "politicians and judges and coppers are money-grubbing thieves. They'll screw you, and rob you, and win elections for doing it, but there's no way around them. Smile and pay the sonsabitches off." The

our strange cynicism about truth as a possibility has permitted us to accept all manner of bullshit

boredom and urban cynicism had become so natural to them that an experience from which these qualities were absent seemed to be, in some way, defective.

Never trust someone who isn't miserable at least half of the time.

Never trust someone who isn't miserable at least half of the time. That's my motto.

Never trust someone who isn't miserable at least half the time. That's my motto.

a matter of fact, the person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him.

Si nos preguntamos cuáles son las razones que subyacen en la fea mezcla de cinismo y culpa en la que pasa su vida la mayoría de los hombres, diremos que son estas: cinismo, porque ni practican ni aceptan la moralidad altruista; culpa, porque no se atreven a rechazarla.

Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

That feels like what happened. A collective, unspoken decision was made that for a few weeks at least, the country would take a much-needed break from cynicism.

if the high didn't solve whatever it was that was getting you down, it could at least help you laugh at the world's ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism. That

wish I had your optimism. Sometimes I do. But people can be so selfish and just plain ignorant. I think a lot of people don't want to be bothered. And I think politics seems like it's full of people willing to do anything for power, who just think about themselves.

It's what passes for wisdom, being ironic and cynical.

The United States, under Reagan, cynically tried to have it both ways, publicly backing Iraq while secretly selling arms to Iran.)

The cynics may be the loudest voices, but I promise you, they will accomplish the least.

Such tenacity drove the entire White House staff. Denis McDonough at one point distributed stickers to everyone, emblazoned with the words FIGHT CYNICISM. This became a useful slogan, an article of our faith.

Cynicism is a choice, and hope is a better choice.

Cynicism is fashionable these days. But I got to tell you, cynicism didn't put a man on the moon. Cynicism did not create the opportunity for all of our citizens to vote. Cynicism has never won a war, or cured a disease, or started a business, or fed young minds. I believe in optimism. I believe in hope ... Don't let the cynics get you down. Cynicism is a choice - and hope is a better choice.

evoked my own youthful idealism, the part of me still untouched by cynicism, cold calculation, or caution dressed up as wisdom.

When I see Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity baying across the television screen, I find it hard to take them seriously. I assume that they must be saying what they do primarily to boost book sales or ratings, although I do wonder who would spend their precious evenings with such sourpusses.

If a friend had a coronary scare and finally started exercising three days a week, who would hound him about the other four days? It's the worst of bad manners—and self-protection, I think, in a nervously cynical society—to ridicule the small gesture.