Cynical Quotes

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.

What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.

I've always tried to present a positive view of the world in my work. It's so much easier to be negative and cynical and predict doom for the world than it is to try and figure out how to make things better. We have an obligation to do the latter.

So crucify the ego, before its far too late To leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical, And you will come to find that we are all one mind Capable of all thats imagined and all conceivable. Just let the light touch you And let the words spill through And let them pass right through Bringing out our hope and reason ... before we pine away.

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.

Harvard takes perfectly good plums as students, and turns them into prunes.

Hatred is a very underestimated emotion.

A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself.

I like threesomes with two women, not because I'm a cynical sexual predator. Oh no! But because I'm a romantic. I'm looking for "The One." And I'll find her more quickly if I audition two at a time.

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

Pasteboard pies and paper flowers are being banished from the stage by the growth of that power of accurate observation which is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it...

It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.

The opposite of creativity is cynicism

False hope really makes you cynical.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

History is neither written nor made without love or hate.

Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.

Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems.

We don't call it sin today, we call it self-expression.

The history of saints is mainly the history of insane people.

The worst thing that can happen in a democracy - as well as in an individual's life - is to become cynical about the future and lose hope.

It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful.

A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. That means trying to understand, take in, connect with, what wickedness human beings are capable of; and not be corrupted - made cynical, superficial - by this understanding.

It will never be possible for any length of time for any group of the American people, either by reason of wealth or learning or inheritance or economic power, to retain any mandate, any permanent authority to arrogate to itself the political control of American public life.

The terrible predicament of a beautiful girl is that only an experienced womanizer, someone cynical and without scruple, feels up to the challenge. More often than not, she will lose her virginity to some filthy lowlife in what proves to be the first step in an irrevocable decline.

No persons are more frequently wrong,
than those who will not admit they are wrong.

I was expecting it to be cynical because I'm like that myself. I wouldn't want it to be all roses because life isn't like that.

Of late, attempts have been made in the USA - at a high level and in a rather cynical form - to play the "Chinese card" against the USSR. This is a shortsighted and dangerous policy.

My church accepts all denominations - fivers, tenners, twenties.

My heart was closed. Cold. I was self-conscious and cynical.

Technically speaking, since our complex societies are highly susceptible to interferences and accidents,they certainly offer ideal opportunities for a prompt disruption of normal activities. These disruptions can, with minimum expense, have considerably destructive consequences. Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems.

Sometimes the idiots outvote the sensible people.

Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason? Why, when it prospers, none dare call it treason.

I think that if a person doesn't feel cynical then they're out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization - you can't just swallow it whole.

I am a cynical optimist. Big opening weekends are like cotton candy. The films you will remember over time are the films that stick in the consciousness of the audience in a good way.

Just try to be happy. Unhappiness starts with wanting to be happier.

Cannes is a very strange place. I tried to show up as best I could and to try not to be cynical.

I remember laughing when we made those slogans up [about abortion]. . . . We were looking for some sexy, catchy slogans to capture public opinion. They were very cynical slogans then, just as all of these slogans today are very, very cynical.

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.

Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. People don't become inured to what they are shown — if that's the right way to describe what happens — because of the quantity of images dumped on them. It is passivity that dulls feeling.

Democracy: a festival of mediocrity.