Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us.

I think cynicism often disguises itself as humour.

If you’re always worried about crushing the ants beneath you… you won’t be able to walk.

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.

He found that it was easy to make a heroic gesture, but hard to abide by its results.

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You’re wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

I dreamed about the future because that’s what people persuade you to do when you’re a kid, but that’s the biggest lie of all–that you can plan. Reality is, you have no fucking clue what’s coming and neither do they.

I sometimes think that ‘friend’ is just a word I use for all the people I haven’t murdered yet.

The atmosphere was electrified by the orgasm with which the strong and secure are overcome when confronted with the visible frailty of someone worse off than themselves.

Fundamental belief consoled him for superficial irony.

It appeared as if the whole world was one elaborate system, opposed to justice and kindness, and set to making cruelty and pain.

Life is a very terrible thing, mostly, with points of wonder and beauty. Most of what makes it terrible, though, is simply that there’s so much of it, blaring in through the five senses.

All men have a natural fear of making a mistake–by believing too well of a person. However, the error of believing too ill of a person is perhaps not feared, at least not in the same degree as the other.

Politicians.Their first thoughts are always with the loved ones of the British serviceman tragically killed in action.And whether they’ll vote New Labour at the next election.There’s no need to be cynical, Susan.Why not?You’ve got me there.

I wouldn’t be caught dead sacrificing myself for this country.

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse

The fucking world is running out of gas.

It seems all spirits need theatrics, eh? Even Christ himself requires incense and holy water. We’re a skeptical people. We need convincing.

As the special election has dragged on, one of the side effects have been greater voter cynicism about the reasons the governor called the election, … The governor has never been able to sell them on the idea and have questioned his motives.

Humanity is a monster you can never kill.

Those who refuse to drink are always thirsty.

…their hearts had still not been hardened with the inevitable cynicism that familiarity and experience breed. 

He see’s the world the way cynics do; Not looking for false Hope.

Too much faith is the worst ally. When you believe in something literally, through your faith you’ll turn it into something absurd. One who is a genuine adherent, if you like, of some political outlook, never takes its sophistries seriously, but only its practical aims, which are concealed beneath these sophistries. Political rhetoric and sophistries...

I thought back to Meg’s advice about Hemingway sentences—simple declarative statements that showed the truth and distilled the meaning. My first attempt at that had been cynical and messed up. I gave it a go again.Find one lost sheep.The angels rejoice.

Curmudgeons speak up because they have to, because it’s become critically important for them to tell the truth as they see it. Telling the truth is as natural to them now as when they were children. The fact that no one cares to listen is inconsequential.What curmudgeons don’t realize, however, is that most people can’t...

Say as little as possible, hope some of the undecideds like your teeth better than the other guy’s—that’s usually the way this business works.

Ce sper eu e sa fac de ras lumea literara. Sa rad pe cat pot de netrebnicii astia lingusitori, adunati ca intr-un musuroi, care se pupa-n fund unul pe altul si isi ling ranile in timp ce, de fapt, isi pun bete roate reciproc.

Every rock-thrower needs something to stand on to have any accuracy or do any damage with the rocks.

A thousand years from now nobody is going to know that you or I ever lived. The cynic is right, but lazy. He says ‘You live, you die and nothing you do will ever make a difference.’ But as long as I live, I’m going to be like Beethoven and shake my fist at fate...

That’s what I’ve never been able to get about religion: that charmless combination of altruism and insanity. Give me a cynical, self-interested bastard any day of the week; at least you can play chicken with him and know he’ll stick to the rules.

Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?

[T]he enduring problem for liberals, as for everyone else, is not whether history will judge them wise or foolish regarding the war on terrorism; it is, rather, the way that the past decade has splintered them away from other Americans. This fracture comes with a steep price: in today’s toxic atmosphere, liberals are no less...

A lot of these activists weren’t even registered voters.

A true rationalist ought to be effective in the real world.

I fight cynicism. It`s too easy. It`s really boring. It`s much harder to be positive and see the wonder of everything. Cynicism is a bunch of people who aren`t as talented as other people, knocking them because they make them feel even more untalented.

Humans are moving into a new phase, one based on the knowledge that talking about their feelings has never got them anywhere.

Numbness and cynicism, I suspect, are more often the products of frustrated compassion than of evil intentions.

The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism.

…God created the world in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. On the eighth day, he started getting complaints. And it hasn’t stopped since.

It all depends on what people you’re talking about helping. That’s the wonderful think about just about every religion on the planet – they’re all so incredibly selfish.

He had a look of composed dissatisfaction, as if he understood life thoroughly.

What were you like,” I asked her. “we’re you happy? Or were you smiling because they told you to?

I am a citizen of the world.

I think cynicism is more enduring than sentimentality.

Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in western popular culture, but in reality, our cynicism advances the desires of the powerful: cynicism is obedience.

The dark war consciousness and pride have seized upon the weak, with great cynicisms and glib, soulless intellects, that grind away like robotic gears at what they despise and can never understand.

Cynics are – beneath it all – only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

It doesn’t matter if justice is on your side. You have to depict your position as just.

Derision, cynicism, prejudice, stereotyping and hunger for stories of failure than of success will be the undoing of democratic progress on the continent.