Cynicism Quotes - Page 7

• [The atheist believes] a world marked by so much injustice, innocent suffering, and cynicism of power cannot be the work of a good God.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Suffering, World, Injustice

  "Spe Salvi". Book by Pope Benedict XVI, w2.vatican.va. November 30, 2007.

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• If cynicism and love lie at opposite ends of a spectrum, do we not sometimes fall in love in order to escape the debilitating cynicism to which we are prone? Is there not in every coup de foudre a certain willful exaggeration of the qualities of the beloved, an exaggeration which distracts us from our habitual pessimism and focuses our energies on someone in whom we can believe in a way we have never believed in ourselves?

  Alain de Botton

  Falling In Love, Lying, Believe

  Alain de Botton (2015). “On Love: A Novel”, p.15, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Whereas modern cynicism brought despair about the ability of the human species to realize laudable ideals, postmodern cynicism doesn't — not because it's optimistic, but because it can't take ideals seriously in the first place. The prevailing attitude is Absurdism. A postmodern magazine may be irreverent, but not bitterly irreverent, for it's not purposefully irreverent; its aim is indiscriminate, because everyone is equally ridiculous. And anyway, there's no moral basis for passing judgment. Just sit back and enjoy the show.

  Robert Wright

  Attitude, Optimistic, Despair

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

  Mary Doria Russell

  Vices, Energy, Foul Language

  Mary Doria Russell (1998). “Children of God: A Novel”, Villard Books

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• I think the most important thing is [to] restore a sense of idealism and end the cynicism in state government. Bring to the job a desire to really make things happen and help people and give confidence back to the public.

  Rod Blagojevich

  Jobs, Thinking, Government

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• The art of giving is perfected through anonymity.

  Douglas Horton

  Art, Giving, Anonymity

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• The relationship between truth and a newspaper is like the relationship between the color green and the number seven. Occasionally you will see the number seven written in green, but you learn not to expect this.

  Garrison Keillor

  Color, Numbers, Green

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• Can-do Americans courageously go about their duty in Iraq - mostly unafraid that a culture of 2,000 years, the reality of geography, the sheer forces of language and religion, the propaganda of state-run Arab media and the cynicism of the liberal West are all stacked against them.

  Victor Davis Hanson

  Running, Reality, Media

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• As consumers we are incredibly discerning, we sense where has been great care in the design, and when there is cynicism and greed.

  Jonathan Ive

  Design, Greed, Care

  "Sir Jonathan Ive: The iMan cometh". Interview with Mark Prigg, www.standard.co.uk. March 12, 2012.

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• Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence. It is the dishonest businessman's substitute for conscience. It is the communicator's substitute, whether he is advertising man or editor or writer, for self-respect.

  Russell Lynes

  Teaching, Learning, Men

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• Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.

  George W. Bush

  Choices, Community, Democracy

  First Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 2001

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• Americans are a very backward people, with all the real virtues of a backward people; the patriarchal simplicity and human dignity of a democracy, and a respect for labor uncorrupted by cynicism.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Respect, Real, People

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• Despite not knowing if what he felt from moment to moment would pass or last forever, he entered fully into his shifting states of violent rage, self-pity, longing, heartbreak, cynicism, without losing the ability to think about what was happening to him. That took courage, I thought, living with the suffering in a mindful way, as an artifact of being, neither good nor bad.

  Diane Ackerman

  Inspirational, Thinking, Self

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• In the press grandstand where I watched Discovery rise against the cloudless sky, the media hit the abort button on cynicism. The Earth shook to the sounds of man, three miles away. The candle lit. . . only someone stripped of awe can leave a launch untouched.

  Jonathan Alter

  Men, Media, Sky

  Jonathan Alter (2008). “Between the Lines: A View Inside American Politics, People, and Culture”

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• A dollar saved is a dollar earned but seldom vice versa.

  Evan Esar

  Vices, Dollars, Vice Versa

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• The state of interbeing is a vulnerable state. It is the vulnerability of the naive altruist, of the trusting lover, of the unguarded sharer. To enter it, one must leave behind the seeming shelter of a control-based life, protected by walls of cynicism, judgment, and blame.

  Charles Eisenstein

  Wall, Shelter, Lovers

  Charles Eisenstein (2013). “The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible”, p.32, North Atlantic Books

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• My comedy does not come from a place of deep cynicism, and I tend to play characters who are naive in some way.

  Anna Faris

  Character, Play, Doe

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• People confuse the word cynicism with the word skepticism. One is “you’re not gonna pay attention to anything, think everything’s screwed up, nothing’s ever gonna work out right”, that’s cynicism. But skepticism is, “you’re presented with evidence and you do your best to draw conclusions based on that”. So, as the saying goes, Bill Nye, do you believe in ghosts? No. However, I would love to see one. Bring it on. I’m open minded to the idea, but the more I look into it in a skeptical frame of thinking, the less likely it seems.

  Bill Nye

  Believe, Thinking, Ideas

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• Cynicism is only intellectual sloth.

  Henry Rollins

  Intellectual, Sloth

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• The cynic sees only cynicism, the depressive can taint creation with one glance

  Anna Funder

  Creation, Glances, Depressive

  Anna Funder (2011). “All That I Am”, p.111, Penguin UK

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• Welcome thy neighbor into thy fallout shelter. He'll come in handy if you run out of food.

  Dean McLaughlin

  Running, Shelter, Welcome

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• I feel increasingly like age is very irrelevant. Quite often, cynicism is confused with wisdom, and my scorn is confused with a knowing, which I don't have.

  Laura Marling

  Confused, Knowing, Age

  "Laura Marling: 'I increasingly feel like age is irrelevant'". Interview with Killian Fox, www.theguardian.com. December 1, 2011.

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• Kindness is the beginning of cruelty.

  Frank Herbert

  Kindness, Cruelty, Thrive

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.434, Penguin

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• A dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit.

  Cecil B. DeMille

  Agents, Dozen, Spirit

  "Sunset Boulevard", www.imdb.com. 1950.

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• A learned County Court judge in a book of memoirs recently said that the overwhelming amount of his time on the bench was taken up with people who are persuaded by persons whom they do not know to enter into contracts that they do not understand to purchase goods that they do not want with money that they have not got.

  Wilfred Greene, 1st Baron Greene

  Book, Taken, Court Judges

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