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    cynic


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Cynical is the name we give those we fear may be laughing at us.

Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry (b. 1957) British actor, writer, comedian
The Hippopotamus, ch. 4, sec. 3 [Ted] (2014)
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Added on 6-Dec-23 | Last updated 6-Dec-23
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If you’ll scratch a cynic, you’ll find a disappointed idealist.

Carlin - If you’ll scratch a cynic, you’ll find a disappointed idealist - wist.info quote

George Carlin (1937-2008) American comedian
Interview by Marc Cooper, The Progressive (Jul 2001)
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A documented case of a phrase Carlin frequently used, though not original with him. Often quoted as "Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist."
 
Added on 13-Jun-22 | Last updated 13-Jun-22
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A politician or political thinker who calls himself a political realist is usually boasting that he sees politics, so to speak, in the raw; he is generally a proclaimed cynic and pessimist who makes it his business to look behind words and fine speeches for the motive. This motive is always low.

Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) American author, critic, political activist
“American Realist Playwrights,” On the Contrary (1961)
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Added on 29-Jun-20 | Last updated 29-Jun-20
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SIR HUMPHREY: A cynic is what an idealist calls a realist.

Jonathan Lynn (b. 1943) English actor, comedy writer, director
Yes Minister, S3E4 “The Moral Dimension” (1982) [with Antony Jay]
 
Added on 28-Jan-20 | Last updated 28-Jan-20
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Cynics are, in the end, only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
Status Anxiety, “Philosophy” 1.5 (2004)
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Added on 9-Aug-18 | Last updated 9-Aug-18
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That sort of thing wears thin — for when one’s cynicism becomes perfect and absolute, there’s no longer anything amusing in the stupidity and hypocrisy of the herd. It is all to be expected — what else could human nature produce? — so irony annuls itself by means of its own victories!

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) American fabulist [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]
Letter to August W. Derleth (Jan 1928)

Regarding Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary.
 
Added on 11-Apr-17 | Last updated 11-Apr-17
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A man prone to suspect evil is most looking for in his neighbor what he sees in himself.

Julius Hare (1795-1855) English cleric, theologian
Guesses at Truth: First Series (1827) [with A. W. Hare]
 
Added on 4-Jan-17 | Last updated 4-Jan-17
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The cynic suffers the form of faith without love. Incredulity is his piety.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001) # 16
 
Added on 11-Dec-15 | Last updated 11-Dec-15
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Cynics are simply thwarted romantics.

William Goldman (1931-2018) American screenwriter, novelist
The Princess Bride (1973)
 
Added on 8-Sep-15 | Last updated 8-Sep-15
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I don’t want to be bitter about life — about love and friendship and all the human emotional entanglements. I’ve had more than my share of human disappointments, deprivations, disillusionment. I want to love people and life above all; I want to be able to say always, “if you feel bitter or disillusioned, there is something wrong with yourself, not with people, not with life.”

Henry Miller (1891-1980) American novelist
Letter to Anaïs Nin (24 May 1933)
 
Added on 26-May-15 | Last updated 26-May-15
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Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it’s no worse than it is.

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) American author and journalist.
Gone with the Wind, ch. 53 [Ashley] (1936)
 
Added on 30-Mar-15 | Last updated 8-Jul-22
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CECIL GRAHAM: What is a cynic?
LORD DARLINGTON: A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
Lady Windermere’s Fan, Act 3 (1892)
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Added on 16-Jun-09 | Last updated 29-Apr-22
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CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things the way they are, and not as they ought to be.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Cynic,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
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Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

Originally appeared in his "The Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1881-10-28).

In his "Town Crier" column in the News Letter (1872-03-09), he wrapped up his personal philosophy so: "And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be."

 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 19-Sep-23
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