Cynical Quotes - Page 14

• When a man speaks of the need for realism one may be sure that this is always the prelude to some bloody deed.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Men, Needs, Deeds

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• There is no crime in the cynical American calendar more humiliating than to be a sucker.

  Max Lerner

  Calendars, Crime, Sucker

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• I think we sort of are all fans of love really, if you're not then you're too cynical aren't you?

  MyAnna Buring

  Thinking, Fans, Ifs

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• Amongst my friends, I am known as the most cynical person they know - I'm incredibly cynical. I don't believe in God, I don't believe in the supernatural, I don't believe in anything! And I'm terribly cynical, and somehow or other, all three of my films and much of my television work has been rather sentimental, and 'heartwarming'.

  Nigel Cole

  Believe, Television, Sentimental

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• The need always to lie and always to avoid the truth stripped everyone of what Custine called 'the two greatest gifts of God-the soul and the speech which communicates it.' People became hypocritical, cunning, mistrustful, cynical, silent, cruel, and indifferent to the fate of others as a result of the destruction of their own souls.

  Theodore Dalrymple

  Lying, Fate, Two

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• I was not interested in doing the plot of Oedipus in blackface. I did wonder, what would these people have been like if they hadn't been in that situation?... One could look at Oedipus, or at my character Augustus, as a cynical schemer who did everything because he was hungry for power. But that's just too easy. I'm more interested in how humans can embody conflicting goals and emotions.

  Rita Dove

  Character, Oedipus, People

  "The darker face of the earth". American Theatre, November 1, 1996.

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• My doctor grabbed me by the wallet and said,'Cough'

  Henny Youngman

  Funny, Humor, Doctors

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• But I'm trying not to be cynical - I don't want to be one of those people who has a cool opportunity and blows it. It's really amazing what's happening to me.

  Shannyn Sossamon

  Blow, Opportunity, People

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• I don't mock things, which makes me more vulnerable to mockery myself. If you're cynical, you're protected from mockery. But I have to be nice. I don't think I have irony. A sense of humour, yes, but not irony.

  Michel Gondry

  Nice, Thinking, Irony

  "How Michel Gondry became cinema's most versatile director" by Ryan Gilbey, www.theguardian.com. December 9, 2010.

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• I am very optimistic about the long run prospects for democracy in China. Chinese society is being dramatically and rapidly transformed. And there’s rising evidence that the new generation not only lacks faith in communism anymore, they think it’s a joke. They’re very cynical about their leadership and they want democratic change.

  Larry Diamond

  Running, Optimistic, Thinking

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• New York is hard, cynical, ruthless, even beyond other cities. From their early repression its children emerge sophisticated, both stunted and overdeveloped, perverted, premature, forced by the artificiality of their environment.

  Ernest Gruening

  New York, Children, Cities

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• An idealist who couldn't cope becomes cynical.

  Amy Ray

  Idealist

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• You know, many people have called me, friends from the nationalist camp, revisionists and so on, from around the world, have called me over the years - and now again because of what happened - and they are all very cynical about the police and the authorities.

  Ernst Zundel

  Friends, Years, People

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• In the midst of my skeptical, cynical, often pessimistic nature exists a slender capacity to believe, if only temporarily, in a guiding, unseen power, and whenever this happens, I go with it. That's what inspiration is. You don't get it from the gods. You make it.

  Jeffrey Eugenides

  Believe, Inspiration, Unseen

  "How to believe in yourself - even if you sometimes don't" by Jeffrey Eugenides, www.cnn.com. October 18, 2012.

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• It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

  Ann Beattie

  Depressing, Said, Known

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• The men of the press, who despised their own profession, did not know why they were enjoying it today. One of them, a young man with years of notorious success behind him and a cynical look of twice his age, said suddenly, 'I know what I'd like to be: I wish I could be a man who covers news!'

  Ayn Rand

  Success, Men, Years

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.182, Hamilton Books

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• If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement. We feel, after years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.

  William Duncan Silkworth

  Children, Growing Up, Sleep

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• So long as human history continues, we will face the perennial challenge of realizing, maintaining and strengthening peace through dialogue, of making dialogue the sure and certain path to peace. We must uphold and proclaim this conviction without cease, whatever coldly knowing smiles or cynical critiques may greet us.

  Daisaku Ikeda

  Knowing, Long, Challenges

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• We should take heart from our own experience and performance. In a cynical world we have become an inspiration to many.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspiration, Heart, World

  "Nelson Mandela: South Africa is proof that there is reason for optimism". www.independent.co.uk. May 10, 2004.

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• Don't give up on your ideals. Don't compromise. Don't turn to expediency. And for heaven's sake . . . don't get cynical.

  Ronald Reagan

  Giving Up, Don't Give Up, Heaven

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• A society that is in its higher circles and middle levels widely believed to be a network of smart rackets does not produce men with an inner moral sense; a society that is merely expedient does not produce men of conscience. A society that narrows the meaning of 'success' to the big money and in its terms condemns failure as the chief vice, raising money to the plane of absolute value, will produce the sharp operator and the shady deal. Blessed are the cynical, for only they have what it takes to succeed.

  C. Wright Mills

  Smart, Blessed, Men

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• I choose joy... I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical... the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

  Max Lucado

  Hope, Opportunity, People

  Max Lucado (1999). “When God Whispers Your Name”, p.72, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• I prefer cynical people. Nice guys grow on trees.

  J Mascis

  Nice, People, Guy

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Marines have a cynical approach to war. They believe in three things; liberty, payday and that when two Marines are together in a fight, one is being wasted. Being a minority group militarily, they are proud and sensitive in their dealings with other military organizations. A Marine's concept of a perfect battle is to have other Marines on the right and left flanks, Marine aircraft overhead and Marine artillery and naval gunfire backing them up.

  Ernie Pyle

  War, Military, Believe

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• You just don't make decisions about what you're going to be like when you are old. I know that I am making that decision right now. Every time we perceive ourselves, others, life, the world and God in a certain way, we are deepening the habits that will take over in old age. Every time I act on the insights that I am getting now I am deciding my future and choosing to be a kindly or cynical old man. Our yesterdays lie heavily upon our todays and our todays will lie heavily upon our tomorrows.

  John Powell

  Lying, Men, Yesterday

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