Cynical quotes
406 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"Capitalism is being attacked not because it is inefficient or misgoverned but because it is cynical. And indeed a society based on the assertion that private vices become public benefits cannot endure, no matter how impeccable its logic, no matter how great its benefits."
"The young knowledge worker whose job is too small to challenge and test his abilities either leaves or declines rapidly into premature middle age, soured, cynical, unproductive."
"Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this."
"For the fee of $10,000, anyone could be escorted to a room, handed a loaded gun and offered another human to kill. The concept made me nauseous. But it also felt real, and rang bells with my more cynical side."
"EMILY's List has worked a lot with swing women voters over the years, and one thing we've learned is that they are very cynical about politics and politicians. They very much want help with the challenges facing them and their families, and they feel like most politicians don't understand or want to lift a finger to help them out."
"I think I quite desperately wanted to have that kind of special companionship [like marriage ] . . . a special relationship, yet I hid from it for many, many years and pretended to be cynical about it."
"Don't be cynical; it leads nowhere. If you work hard, and are kind, amazing things will happen to you."
"I had a direct experience of the efficacy of this form of mind-body medicine. This comes from somebody who had been sort of an alpha male, highly cynical war correspondent, who had basically seen it all and heard it all, was cynical and trusted nothing."
"I would have never thought in a million years that I would appeal to an Avril fan. But I'm glad that I do because a lot of them aren't jaded or cynical."
"The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself."
"When people get cynical about love, they should look at us [Yoko and John Lennon] and see it is possible"
"No one more cynical than an idealist."
"How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?"
"Oh, let me be mawkish for the nonce! I am so tired of being cynical."
"Unhappy women are given to protecting their sensitiveness by cynical gossip, by whining, by high-church and new-thought religions, or by a fog of vagueness."
"Don't give up on your ideals. Don't compromise. Don't turn to expediency. And for heaven's sake . . . don't get cynical."
"People tend to become cynical about even the most appalling crisis if it seems to be dragging on, failing to come to term."
"I think that if there are problems in journalism they're created by journalists... the trivialisation of the news and the sort of snyed, cynical allowance of untruth to be in a newspaper because it might be titillating."
"The radicals...want speech regulated by codes that proscribe certain language. They see free speech as at best a delusion, at worst a threat to the welfare of minorities and women....The most obvious (and cynical) explanation for the switched positions is the switched situations. Protesting students became established professors and administrators. For outsiders, free speech is bread and butter; for insiders, indigestion. To the new academics, unregulated free speech spells trouble."
"Oscar Wilde always makes me smile - with respect and admiration. His short stories prove that it is possible to be both sarcastic, even cynical, but deeply compassionate. Just seeing the cover of one of Wildes books in a bookshop makes me smile."
