"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."

Source: The Gamester, Act II, scene 1, as quoted Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 306-07, 1922.