#cynicism

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

Irony differentiates. Cynicism never does. ↗

— Paul Horgan

#differentiates #does #irony #never

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#cynicism #luck #worst

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? ↗

— Barack Obama

#about #cynicism #election #end #in the end

And you that sought for magic in your youth but desire it not in your age, know that there is a blindness of spirit which comes from age, more black than the blindness of eye, making a darkness about you across which nothing may be seen, or felt, or known, or in any way apprehended. ↗

— Lord Dunsany

#alveric #cynicism #lirazel #magic #youth

It is a well-known fact that very often, putting the period of boyhood out of the argument, the older we grow the more cynical and hardened we become; indeed, many of us are only saved by timely death from moral petrification, if not from moral corruption. ↗

— H. Rider Haggard

#amorality #corruption #cynicism #growing-old #hopelessness

I'm getting old, thought Eileen Calder. Old and worn out and cynical. And being cynical is a lot worse than being old or worn out. ↗

— Charles Sheffield

#burnout #cynicism #age

You're such a cynic," Molly said. "I think cynics are playful and cute. ↗

— Jim Butcher

#harry-dresden #humor #molly-carpenter #change

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