#cynicism

Contrary to current cynicism about past golden ages, the abstraction known as 'the intelligent layperson' does exist - in the form of millions of folks with a passionate commitment to continuous learning. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#abstraction #ages #commitment #continuous #contrary

My level of cynicism about the reasons that took us to war against Iraq remain just as well-developed as they were before I went. ↗

— Ted Koppel

#against #before #cynicism #i #iraq

We are all cynics now, I suppose, and even a mewling infant knows that to save a life is to make an eternal enemy. ↗

— Paul Hoffman

#baby #childe #cynic #cynicism #enemy

Why is it that with women, some kink, some vulnerability of the sex, is always presumed to lie at the heart of things- as if they have no other life, no relevance as important as that which they have for us men? ↗

— Anna Funder

#women-and-men #life

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

— Michael D. Weiss

#geopolitics #inaction #international-community #politics #syria

It's just so perfuck. ↗

— Toba Beta

#cynicism

One simple answer is that there has been a massive rise in the incidence of sanctimony and smugness among the successful that has nothing to do with any change in the underlying reality. Rather, it has been stimulated by politicians who have realized that it is possible to win power by recruiting the most economically successful forty per cent or so of the population in a crusade to roll back the gains made by their fellow citizens in the previous forty years. And how better to rationalize this than to tell people that they deserve the incomes that the market generates? ↗

— Brian M. Barry

#economics #nulabor #politics #reaganism #thatcher

Rich men have dreams. Poor men die to make them come true. ↗

— Glen Cook

#dreams #poor #poor-people #rich-people #dreams

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 do not exist, after all, in order that they be believed; rather, they have to serve as a common and agreed upon alibi. Foolish people who take them in earnest sooner or later discover inconsistencies in them, begin to protest, and finish finally and infamously as heretics and apostates. No, too much faith never brings anything good... ↗

— Milan Kundera

#dogma #faith #history #machiavellian #moderation

That's the hardest thing of all--never to become cynical, never to lose faith, never to become indifferent. ↗

— Sergei Lukyanenko

#difficult #faith #hard #indifference #faith