Cynicism Quotes - Page 4

• I read some of my stories recently and thought, 'How in the hell did I get away with that?' I had some really raw cynicism in some of them.

  Carl Barks

  Stories, Hell, Get Away

  Carl Barks, Donald D. Ault (2003). “Carl Barks: Conversations”, p.104, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Sex, Teenager, Funny Relationship

  Chuck Palahniuk (2001). “Choke: A Novel”, Anchor Books

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I’m actually trying to make sense of the world. There’s nothing cynical or absurd in what I do.

  Yue Minjun

  Meaningful, Cynical, Chinese

  22 Copy quote

• Things of the spirit are what count: brotherhood – in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad; cheerfulness – in a day when the pessimists have the floor and cynics are popular; service – in a day when millions are interested in getting or grasping, rather than giving

  E. Urner Goodman

  Hate, Home, Giving

  97 Copy quote

• Cynicism was a one-way path, and once taken the way back was lost forever.

  Chris Wooding

  Taken, Forever, Way

  7 Copy quote

• What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism.

  Pauline Kael

  Political, This Generation, Generations

  16 Copy quote

• Nothing ever guarantees you anything-that's my rule. My other rule is never believe anything that anyone tells you, and then you'll never be fooled. It's not as cynical as it sounds; it's just that people always say something for a reason-maybe a nice reason, maybe a devious reason-so on that level, you can't take things at face value.

  David Hyde Pierce

  Nice, Believe, People

  8 Copy quote

• I never think I feel cynical in general. Cynical is reality with an alternate spelling. I feel there's a gigantic amount of injustice and overt crime every day in the world, from emotional crimes to international crimes, and it often carries rewards.

  Woody Allen

  Reality, Emotional, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• There is no power in cynicism. There is no forward thrust in cynicism.

  Jesse Jackson

  Thrust

  "Jesse Jackson: the Mother Jones Interview". Interview with Douglas Foster, www.motherjones.com. March 2000.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not be by revolutionary groups burning government offices and occupying the broadcasting and newspaper offices of the world. It will come from disenchantment, cynicism and despair caused by the realisation that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented.

  Tony Benn

  Mean, Order, Government

  117 Copy quote

• Faith reinvigorates the will, enriches the affections, and awakens a sense of creativeness. Active faith knows no fear, and it is a safeguard to me against cynicism and despair.

  Helen Keller

  Faith, Despair, No Fear

  4 Copy quote

• The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Failure, Men, Light

  Henry Ward Beecher (1845). “Lectures to Young Men, on Various Important Subjects”, p.113

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Refuse to be cynical. Refuse to think that things can never change.

  John Callaway

  Thinking, Cynical, Never Change

  5 Copy quote

• A cynic is just a man who found out when he was about ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset. Yes, there'll be more war ; and soon, I don't doubt. There always has been. There'll be deaths and disappointments and failures. When they come, you meet them.

  James Gould Cozzens

  Disappointment, War, Upset

  James Gould Cozzens, Matthew Joseph Bruccoli (1978). “Just representations: a James Gould Cozzens reader”, Southern Illinois Univ Pr

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Optimism is a choice. Cynicism isn't smarter - it's just safer.

  Jewel

  Choices, Smarter

  "A Search for Truth About Jewel" by Neil Strauss, www.rollingstone.com. December 24, 1998.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sarah Palin is a great example of someone that just stirs the pot for the sake of the attention. No vision, no critical thinking, no backup to her statements. Just to incite little riots everywhere and capitalize upon it financially. To me, she is a microcosm of the ultimate cynicism in American politics.

  Rosanne Cash

  Thinking, Vision, Littles

  Interview with Antonino D’Ambrosio, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. September 21, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.

  Miller Williams

  War, Eye, Compassion

  Miller Williams (1997). “The Ways We Touch: Poems”, p.55, University of Illinois Press

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• For all the cynicism that the world contains, people are a little more open to those things that maybe are to do with returning you to some kind of simpler, happier state.

  Kenneth Branagh

  People, World, Littles

  "CINDERELLA Interview: Kenneth Branagh". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. March 16, 2015.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Postmodern irony and cynicism's become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what's wrong, because they'll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony's gone from liberating to enslaving. ... The postmodern founders' patricidal work was great, but patricide produces orphans, and no amount of revelry can make up for the fact that writers my age have been literary orphans throughout our formative years.

  David Foster Wallace

  Writing, Artist, Years

  7 Copy quote

• Cynicism ... is the trade-mark of failure.

  Katherine Cecil Thurston

  Mark, Trade

  4 Copy quote

• We need to create a society in which civility rules over cynicism and apathy.

  Antanas Mockus

  Apathy, Needs, Civility

  "Citizenship, Colombia-style" by Yvonne Roberts, www.theguardian.com. July 22, 2008.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• The cynic makes fun of all earnestness; he makes fun of everything and everyone who feels that something can be done. . . . But in his heart of hearts he knows that he is a defeated man and that his cynicism is merely an expression of the fact that he has lost courage and is beaten.

  George Edgar Vincent

  Courage, Fun, Heart

  6 Copy quote

• Cynicism is the largest obstacle to social change. Cynicism is dangerous because people throw up their hands and say, "Well it's not possible. Why should I even try?"

  Robert Reich

  Hands, People, Trying

  Source: collider.com

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Be a light, not a judge, be a model not a critic. Little by little, your circle of influence will explode and you will avoid the emotional metastasizing cancers of complaining, criticizing, competing, comparing and cynicism, all which reflect victimization, all of which are the opposite of being proactive.

  Stephen Covey

  Cancer, Emotional, Circles

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.

  H. Allen Smith

  Monday, Morning, 4th Of July

  51 Copy quote