quotations about cynicism
I was too green to know that all cynicism masks a failure to cope--an impotence, in short; and that to despise all effort is the greatest effort of all.
JOHN FOWLES
The Magus
Those who are too weak to make a stand against reality have no choice but to obliterate themselves by identifying with it. They are never rationally reconciled to civilization. Instead, they bow to it, secretly accepting the identity of reason and domination, of civilization and the ideal, however much they may shrug their shoulders. Well-informed cynicism is only another mode of conformity. These people willingly embrace or force themselves to accept the rule of the stronger as the eternal norm.
MAX HORKHEIMER
Eclipse of Reason
I hate cynicism a great deal worse than I do the devil; unless, perhaps, the two were the same thing?
R.L. STEVENSON
An Inland Voyage
So, swallow that cynicism boy
It's ruining my air boy
I'd be sleeping with it now
If you hadn't bit it's wrist to the marrow
STEVE VAI
"Just Cartilage"
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
TERRY PRATCHETT
Guards! Guards!
A cynic is a person searching for an honest man, with a stolen lantern.
EDGAR A. SHOAFF
attributed, Bathroom Almanac
The cynic, a parasite of civilisation, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail. What would become of the cynic among a savage people where everyone, naturally and quite seriously, fulfils what the cynic farcically considers to be his personal role?
JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET
The Revolt of the Masses
Cynicism is only intellectual sloth.
HENRY ROLLINS
"Riff on life's journey blends humor, hope", Columbus Dispatch, April 2, 2010
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
JOYCE CAROL OATES
Do What You Will
Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are not as they ought to be.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
A cheap and easy cynicism rails at everything. The master of the art accomplishes the formidable task of discrimination.
AMBROSE BIERCE
"Epigrams of a Cynic"
Cynicism--the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence.
RUSSELL LYNES
attributed, The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Toasts & Quotes
Cynicism is intellectual treason.
NORMAN COUSINS
Human Options
A cynic sees little to admire in the world, while the world sees even less to admire in him.
EVAN ESAR
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