Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed.

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

I am discovering that I can live far better without cynicism than I can without trust.

What good is ye world when ye canst not livest hither.

When you succumb to cynicism, darkness, pessimism and sarcasm you are amplifying imbalance and negativity.

You say that people are shallow and ignorant until they go out and see the world? Well I, on the other hand, went out and in comparison realized I was in pretty good standing.

Voltaire expected that within fifty years of his lifetime there would not be one Bible in the world. His house is now a distribution centre for Bibles in many languages.

I think this goes more to the idea of ‘relentless irony’ than ‘divine providence.

Everyone is a little bitter. We’re born bitter. The personality itself is really just a very complex defense mechanism. A reaction to the first time someone said, “No you can’t.

Tomorrow’s world can not exist without morals, without faith and memory. Cynicism, narrow interests and cowardice must not occupy our lives.

To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of being “in the know,” cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to a creeping bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit…A...

… drink levels all mankind. It is the ultimate democrat

Better not to find out whether or not the rumorsare true, I say. Better find the other bastard and skinhim.

Stir not the bitterness in the cup that I mixed for myself,’ said Denethor. ‘Have I not tasted it now many nights upon my tongue, foreboding that worse lay in the dregs?

I can’t bear the thought that a man of lofty mind and heart begins with the ideal of the Madonna and ends with the ideal of Sodom.

Life is serious but art is fun!

The world keeps ending but new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun’s just started.

The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

You’re such an optimist Kane — that’s your problem. You only end up disappointed.

That’s the problem with this never-ending centipede of lemmings, Beck. You know they’re all pussies, each and every one of ’em. They buy these books to get scared because their lives are too easy. How...

It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.

On revient toujours a son premier amour.” It sounds like a cynicism to-day. As if we really meant: “On ne revient jamais a son premier amour.” But as a matter of fact, a man never...

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

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...

It’s when the ‘international community’ expresses ‘concern’ about your ‘situation’ that your situation is well and truly fucked.

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...

Cressida: My lord, will you be true?Troilus: Who, I? Alas, it is my vice, my fault:Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion,I with great truth catch mere simplicity;Whilst some with cunning gild their copper...

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.

The world didn’t give a shit. It didn’t bestow. It took

[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...

Uncouth, clannish, lumbering about the confines of Space and Time with a puzzled expression on his face and a handful of things scavenged on the way from gutters, interglacial littorals, sacked settlements and broken relationships,...

It’s weird, marriage. It’s like this license that gives a person the legal right to control their spouse / their ‘other half.

Jake was close to tears. In that moment he saw the world in its true light, as a place where nothing had ever been any good and nothing of significance done: no art worth a...

Cynicism creates a numbness toward life.Cynicism begins with a wry assurance that everyone has an angle. Behind every silver lining is a cloud. The cynic is always observing, critiquing, but never engaging, loving, and hoping….To...

It naturally raises cynicism when you have so many 5-4 decisions from our Supreme Court and 4-3 decisions out of the Florida Supreme Court and that is not healthy, … But our republic will survive.

Maybe it’s the fact the most of the arts here are produced by world-weary and sophisticated older people and then consumed by younger people who not only consume art but study it for clues on...

In de loop van de vijf, zes jaar dat ik in Rusland verbleef, ben ik een paar keer door diverse organisaties en individuen gedood dan wel doodverklaard.Teruggekeerd naar het vaderland kwam ik erachter dat ik...

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...

The fucking world is running out of gas.

It is the curse of the competent―not to be called upon.

A true friend is a gift from God. Since God doesn’t exist, guess what? Neither do true friends.

When a man over forty tries to repent of the sins of England and to love her enemies, he is attempting something costly; for he was brought up to certain patriotic sentiments which cannot be...

I am a citizen of the world.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

Gold was not sure of many things, but he was definite about one: for every successful person he knew, he could name at least two others of greater ability, better, and higher intelligence who, by...

I am not capable of true friendship. One of the two friends is always the slave of the other, although, often, neither of the two admits this to himself.

Morality, Sir, is the monologue of the unexcited and the unexcitable, the revenge of the unsuccessful, the punishment of those who tried and failed, or who never had the courage to try at all.

Ignorance is king. Many would not profit by his abdication. Many enrich themselves by means of his dark monarchy. They are his Court, and in his name they defraud and govern, enrich themselves and perpetuate...

Sometimes I think books are the only friends worth having.

Cynicism is one of the terrible obstacles to progress.