Quotes about cynics-and-cynicism

The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.

— Henry Ward Beecher

A cynic is a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be.

— Ambrose Bierce

The cynic never grows up, but commits intellectual suicide.

— Dean Charles R. Brown

I'm a hopeful cynic.

— Tracy Chapman

A cynic is just a man who found out when he was ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset.

— James G. Cozzens

Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives. Don't waste yourself in rejection, or bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach honesty.

— Nietzche Evil

The cynic, a parasite of civilization, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail.

— Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Cynicism is cheap -- you can buy it at any Monoprix store -- it's built into all poor-quality goods.

— Graham Greene

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.

— Sidney J. Harris

It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.

— Fannie Hurst

Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence.

— Russell Lynes

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

— H. L. Mencken

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

— H. L. Mencken

Cynicism is intellectual dandyism.

— George Meredith

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

— George Bernard Shaw

The only deadly sin I know is cynicism.

— Henry Lewis Stimson

Cynicism is the humor of hatred.

— Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree

CYNIC: One who not only reads bitter lessons from the past, but who is prematurely disappointed with the future.

— Source Unknown

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

— Source Unknown

A cynic is a man who looks at the world with a monocle in his mind's eye.

— Carolyn Wells

Cynicism is humor in ill health.

— H.G. Wells

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

— Oscar Wilde

I worry that no matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.

— Jane Wagner