Quotes About Cynicism

He imagined a frog in a pot, the water getting gradually warmer, the frog never noticing any of it. He imagined people telling themselves they would never be part of something corrupt, then telling themselves they would only be part of it to make it better, then telling themselves, hey, the thing wasn't corrupt in the first place, it was just the way of the world, they'd been naïve before and now they were savvy.

I left. I told myself again I wasn't disappointed, I wasn't even terribly surprised. I learned a long time ago not to trust, that faith is to life what sticking your chin out is to boxing. I told myself it was good to get some further confirmation of the essential accuracy of my worldview.

Skepticism is demanding evidence before believing; cynicism is not believing even with evidence

She started to turn away, then turned back. She said: 'They did it [September 11] in the name of God, but there is no God. If there was a God, Mr. Staley, He would have struck all eighteen of them dead in their boarding lounges with their boarding passes in their hands, but no God did. They called for passengers to get on and those fucks just got right on.

I never read the paper myself. Why bother? It's the same old shit day in and day out, dictators beating the ching-chong out of people weaker than they are, men in uniforms beating the ching-chong out of soccer balls or footballs, politicians kissing babies and kissing ass.

as afirmações dos cínicos parecem sempre mais plausíveis do que as dos optimistas incorrigíveis.

The children of blame are cynicism and hopelessness.

The children of blame are cynicism and hopelessness. When we succumb to believing that we are victims of our circumstances and yield to the plight of determinism, we lose hope, we lose drive, and we settle into resignation and stagnation.

The survival response of popular culture is cynicism—"just lower your expectations of life to the point that you aren't disappointed by anyone or anything.

Voltaire's Candide who asserts that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

You don't believe in love, do you?" - "I think it exists. I just don't think it will ever exist for me.

Once a woman turns against you, forget it. They can love you, then something turns in them. They can watch you dying in a gutter, run over by a car, and they'll spit on you.

Love is bullshit. Emotion is bullshit.

Only little boys and old men sneer at love.

The romantics would call this a love story, the cynics would call it a tragedy.

If there is no sarcasm, there's no true love towards the mankind

He who best knows the world will love it least.

God is love? Not bloody likely.

When you dare aspire upward, you reveal the inadequacy of the present and the promise of the future. Then you disturb others, in the depths of their souls, where they understand that their cynicism and immobility are unjustifiable. You play Abel to their Cain.

Your inaction, inertia and cynicism removes from the world that part of you that could learn to quell suffering and make peace.

If you surround yourself with people who support your upward aim, they will not tolerate your cynicism and destructiveness. They will instead encourage you when you do good for yourself and others and punish you carefully when you do not.

It is easy for optimism to be undermined and demolished, however, if it is naive, and for cynicism to arise in its place. But the act of peering into the darkness as deeply as possible reveals a light that appears unquenchable, and that is a profound surprise, as well as a great relief.

Instead, the entire team degenerates. The newcomer remains cynical, arrogant and neurotic. He complains. He shirks. He misses important meetings. His low-quality work causes delays, and must be redone by others.

This kind of theorizing is particularly attractive to people who are smart but lazy. Cynicism serves as an aid, too, as does arrogance. The new adherents will be taught that mastering such a game constitutes education, and will learn to criticize alternative theories, different methods, and increasingly, even the idea of fact itself.