Cynical Quotes - Page 8

• A well governed people are generally a people who do not think much.

  Andre Siegfried

  Thinking, People, Wells

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• The working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.

  George Santayana

  Mistake, Self, Routine

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• Once (says an Author; where I need not say)
  Two Trav'lers found an Oyster in their way;
  Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew stong;
  While Scale in Hand Dame Justice pass'd along
  Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws.
  Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause,
  Dame Justice wighing long the doubtful Right
  Takes, opens, swallows it, before their sight.
  The cause of strife remov'd so rarely well,
  "There take" (says Justice), "take ye each a shell.
  We thrive at Westminster on Fools like you:
  'Twas a fat oyster - live in peace - Adieu."

  Pope Alexander VI

  Winning, Sight, Hands

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• The preponderance of pain over pleasure is the cause of our fictitious morality and religion.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Pain, Causes, Morality

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• Law and freedom must be indivisible partners. For without law, there can be no freedom, only choas and disorder; and without freedom, law is but a cynical veneer for injustice and oppression.

  Ronald Reagan

  Freedom, Law, Liberty

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1984). “Ronald Reagan”

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• Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible.

  H. L. Mencken

  Agnostic, Incredibles, Appeals

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• The business world worships mediocrity. Officially we revere free enterprise, initiative and individuality. Unofficially we fear it.

  George Lois

  Business, Individuality, Excellence

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• One of the fundamental reasons why so many doctors become cynical and disillusioned is precisely because, when the abstract idealism has worn thin, they are uncertain about the value of the actual lives of the patients they are treating. This is not because they are callous or personally inhuman: it is because they live in and accept a society which is incapable of knowing what a human life is worth.

  John Berger

  Life, Doctors, Knowing

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• Nature is that lovely lady to whom we owe polio, leprosy, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, cancer.

  Stanley Norman Cohen

  Cancer, Lovely Lady, Tuberculosis

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• One of the very first things I figured out about life...is that it's better to be a hopeful person than a cynical, grumpy one, because you have to live in the same world either way, and if you're hopeful, you have more fun.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Positive, Fun, Hopeful

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• I like threesomes with two women, not because I'm a cynical sexual predator. Oh no! But because I'm a romantic. I'm looking for "The One." And I'll find her more quickly if I audition two at a time.

  Russell Brand

  Sex, Two, Predator

  FaceBook post by Russell Brand from May 28, 2012

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• I'm a cynical idealist.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Idealist

  F. Scott Fitzgerald, James L. W. West (1995). “This Side of Paradise”, p.84, Cambridge University Press

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• Making love in the morning got me through morning sickness. I found I could be happy and throw up at the same time.

  Pamela Anderson

  Being Happy, Morning, Making Love

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• The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget.

  John Berger

  God, Photography, Memories

  John Berger (2015). “About Looking”, p.44, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

  Winston Churchill

  War, Political, Politics

  Winston Churchill (1987). “The Irrepressible Churchill: Stories, Sayings and Impressions of Sir Winston Churchill”, London : Robson Books

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• The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.

  Cyril Connolly

  Sweet, Past, Smell

  David Pryce-Jones, Cyril Connolly (1983). “Cyril Connolly: Journal and Memoir”, HarperCollins

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• Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mean, Government, Political

  New York Times 1 Feb. 1931, pt. 5, p. 1

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• For better or for worse, I've watched people die in front of me. I see how they are in the end. And they're not cynical. In the end, they wanna hold somebody's hand. And that's real to me.

  Mitch Albom

  Real, Hands, People

  "Mitch Albom Doesn't Care What You Think, You Cynical Bastard". Entertainment Weekly Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 5, 2006.

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• New York City is a great monument to the power of money and greed... a race for rent.

  Frank Lloyd Wright

  Money, New York, Artist

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• It's so easy to manipulate an audience, but it's nearly always clear that you are being manipulated. I think even people that are not critically attuned are aware of cynical manipulation in film.

  John Boorman

  Thinking, People, Manipulation

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• A lot of presidential memoirs, they say, are dull and self-serving. I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.

  William J. Clinton

  Hope, Self, Interesting

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• If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

  Ray Bradbury

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• The coming years will prove increasingly cynical and cruel. People will definitely not slip into oblivion while hugging each other. The final stages in the life of humanity will be marked by the monstrous war of all against all: the amount of suffering will be maximal.

  Pentti Linkola

  War, Years, People

  Pentti Linkola (2011). “Can Life Prevail?”, p.152, Arktos

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• I am not cynical. I am just old. I know what is going to happen next.

  Fay Weldon

  Next, Happens, Knows

  Fay Weldon (2011). “Chalcot Crescent”, p.7, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• ... motivating people, forcing them to your will, gives you a cynical attitude toward humanity. It degrades everything it touches.

  Frank Herbert

  Attitude, People, Giving

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.62, Penguin

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