Cynicism Quotes - Page 21

• Eating at a new, highly recommended restaurant is like a Very Important Blind Date, a contract with uncertainty you enter into with great expectation battling the cynicism of experience. You sit waiting, wondering about the upcoming moments of revelation. Somewhere in the back of your head is the dour warning that disappointment is inevitable but you don't really believe it or you wouldn't be there. The best eaters are always optimists.

  Stuart Stevens

  Disappointment, Believe, Food

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• It's like in most parts of America, where there was industry and there is no longer; there is cynicism mixed with sarcasm and some optimism. That's how my background influenced my comedy.

  Jim Gaffigan

  Sarcasm, America, Optimism

  "Gaffigan getting ready to bring 'Sexy' to the Keith". Interview with Ben Fields, www.herald-dispatch.com. September 27, 2008.

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• A cynic sees little to admire in the world, while the world sees even less to admire in him.

  Evan Esar

  World, Littles, Admire

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• Cynicism does not cause inaction.

  David Wong

  Doe, Causes, Inaction

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• I think growing up in Indiana prepares anyone for a life in comedy. I do feel like there is a certain kind of self-effacing cynicism among all Hoosiers.

  Jim Gaffigan

  Growing Up, Thinking, Self

  "Ask Jim Gaffigan". Live chat, www.washingtonpost.com. November 28, 2007.

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• Scientists have discovered that the small, brave act of cooperating with another person, of choosing trust over cynicism, generosity over selfishness, makes the brain light up with quiet joy.

  Natalie Angier

  Light, Generosity, Joy

  "Why We're So Nice: We're Wired to Cooperate" by Natalie Angier, www.nytimes.com. July 23, 2002.

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• A cheap and easy cynicism rails at everything. The master of the art accomplishes the formidable task of discrimination.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Art, Tasks, Discrimination

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales”, p.250, tredition

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• Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Witty, Book

  Lady Windermere's Fan act 3 (1892)

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• Cynic: an idealist whose rose-colored glasses have been removed, snapped in two and stomped into the ground, immediately improving his vision

  Rick Bayan

  Glasses, Two, Rose

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• Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates. Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.

  Nelson Mandela

  Kings, Selfish, War

  FaceBook post by Nelson Mandela from Aug 28, 2013

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• One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us. The disappointments of life, the injustices, the battering events that are beyond our control, and the betrayals we endure, from those we befriended and loved, can make us cynical and turn our hearts into flint – on which only the matches of anger and bitterness can be struck into flame. By their delight in being with us, the reliable sunniness of their disposition, the joy they bring to playtime, the curiosity with which they embrace each new experience, dogs can melt cynicism,and sweeten the bitter heart.

  Dean Koontz

  Dog, Disappointment, Betrayal

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• Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Challenges, Negative, Incessant

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• Big Brother is not the only danger facing the country. Another is the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric and the rise of people who are so individualistic in their outlook that they have no real understanding of how to knit others together and look after the common good.

  David Brooks

  Country, Brother, Real

  "The Solitary Leaker". www.nytimes.com. June 10, 2013.

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• I hope that I state your case fairly: One of my great fears is misrepresenting you, even to myself, now that you are not here to set me right. The truth is that you did not believe in idealism. All love was suspect; even a saint's was just differed self-interest. And it was impossible to argue without sounding either sentimental or naive. Cynicism has all the smart words on it's side; idealism uses a nursery school dictionary. And you studied early to disguise your childhood pain. But it is not universal.

  Michael Arditti

  Pain, Smart, Believe

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• Cynicism has all the smart words on it's side; idealism uses a nursery school dictionary.

  Michael Arditti

  Smart, School, Nurse

  Michael Arditti (1996). “Pagan and Her Parents”

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• The cynics, they can only speak of the dark, of the obvious, and this is not hard. For all it’s supposed sophistication, it’s cynicism that’s simplistic. In a fallen world, how profound is to see the cracks? The sages and prophets, the disciples and revolutionaries, they are the ones up on the ramparts, up on the wall pointing to the dawn of the new Kingdom coming, pointing to the light that breaks through all things broken, pointing to redemption always rising and to the Blazing God who never sleeps.

  Ann Voskamp

  Wall, Sleep, Dark

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• ...for the contingent out there who sneer at heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman and Captain America, those icons who still, at their core, represent selfless sacrifice for the greater good, and who justify their contempt by saying, oh, it's so unrealistic, no one would ever be so noble... grow up. Seriously. Cynicism is not maturity, do not mistake the one for the other. If you truly cannot accept a story where someone does the right thing because it's the right thing to do, that says far more about who you are than these characters.

  Greg Rucka

  Growing Up, Mistake, Hero

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• Nothing ages your car as much as the sight of your neighbor's new one.

  Evan Esar

  Sight, Car, Age

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• A cynic is just a man who found out when he was ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset.

  James Gould Cozzens

  Funny, Men, Upset

  James Gould Cozzens, Matthew Joseph Bruccoli (1978). “Just representations: a James Gould Cozzens reader”, Southern Illinois Univ Pr

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• I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Agreement, Favourite, Altruism

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• A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on.

  William S. Burroughs

  Philosophy, Littles, Psychedelic

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• Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.

  Ann Landers

  Funny, Motivational, Hilarious

  Quoted in Barbara Rowes, The Book of Quotes (1979)

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• Take action. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life. Action is the antidote to apathy and cynicism and despair. You will inevitably make mistakes but at the end of your days, you will be remembered for your gallop, not for your stumble.

  Bradley Whitford

  Mistake, Hero, Despair

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• Young people are cynical about love. Ultimately, cynicism is the great mask of the disappointed and betrayed heart.

  Bell Hooks

  Heart, People, Cynical

  "All About Love: New Visions". Book by Nell Hooks, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2000.

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• People notice peacemakers because they dress funny. We know how the people who make war dress - in uniforms and medals, or in computers and clipboards, or in absoluteness, severity, greed, and cynicism. But the peacemaker is dressed in righteousness, justice, and faithfulness - dressed for the work that is to be done.

  Walter Brueggemann

  Love, Faith, Peace

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