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Cynic Quotes

Browse 158 quotes about Cynic.

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Cynic Quotes

“This boy," he said, indicating the paintings with one sweep of his arms, "was romantic. He thought that it was beauty that bound everything together. And for him it was true. Life had been beautiful for him. He was very young. He knew very little of life. He saw beauty but he did not feel any true passion. How could he? He did not know. He had not really encountered the force of beauty's opposite." "Are you more cynical now, then?" she asked him. "Cynical," he frowned, "No, not that. I know that there is an ugly side of life-and not just human life. I know that everything is not simply beautiful. I am not a romantic as this boy was. But I am not a cynic either. There is something enduring in all of life, Anne, something tough. Something. Something terribly weak yet incredibly powerful...”

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Book:Simply Love
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“I am metaphysical being, mystical and emotional, skeptical and cynical, happy and boisterous, loud and bawdy, quiet and melancholy, tender and cruel, full of mirth and despair. Inherent inconsistences mark me as part of nature, which is neither cruel nor fair, or reliable or predictable.”

Human NatureEmotionalSadQuietDespairSelf AwarenessHappyLoudMelancholyCynicalSkepticismSelf KnowledgeSkepticalPredictableSkepticInconsistentMirthCynicInconsistencySelf IdentityPsycheCruelPredictabilityTenderReliableBoisterousHuman Nature QuotesConflicting EmotionsBawdyHu Nature Quote
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“The horrors of the past lose their edge, and in the doing they blind us to a world careening toward a darkness beyond the bitterest speculation. It's sure to be interesting. When the onset of universal night is finally acknowledged as irreversible even the coldest cynic will be astonished at the celerity with which every rule and stricture shoring up this creaking edifice is abandoned and every aberrancy embraced. It should be quite a spectacle. However brief.”

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Book:The Passenger
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“What is the use of straining after an amiable view of things, when a cynical view is most likely to be the true one?.”

UseFunnyViewsSarcasmSarcasticCynicalCynicismCynicAmiableTrue Ones
Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
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“Nothing ever guarantees you anything-that's my rule. My other rule is never believe anything that anyone tells you, and then you'll never be fooled. It's not as cynical as it sounds; it's just that people always say something for a reason-maybe a nice reason, maybe a devious reason-so on that level, you can't take things at face value.”

PeopleBelieveReasonFacesValuesSoundLevelsNiceGuaranteesCynicalCynicismFooledCynicDeviousFace Value
Author:David Hyde Pierce
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“The cat is such a perfect symbol of beauty and superiority that is seems scarcely possible for any true aesthete and civilized cynic to do other than to worship it.”

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Book:H. P. LOVECRAFT äóñ Ultimate Collection: 120+ Works ALL in One Volume: Complete Novellas & Short Stories, Juvenilia, Poetry, Essays & Collaborations: The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Out of Time, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dunwich Horror, Dagon, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Outsider, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Cats of Ultharäó_
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“The European arguments against the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act demonstrate that "some Europeans have never lost faith in appeasement as a way of life. It is clear that Iran is cynically manipulating gullible (or equally cynical) Europeans to advance its development of weapons of mass destruction.”

WayLostClearDevelopmentWeaponsMassArgumentDestructionIranCynicalCynicismSanctionsWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionLibyaCynicGullibleAppeasementLost Faith
Author:John Bolton
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“A cynic is just a man who found out when he was about ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset. Yes, there'll be more war ; and soon, I don't doubt. There always has been. There'll be deaths and disappointments and failures. When they come, you meet them.”

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Book:Just Representations: A James Gould Cozzens Reader
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“One can't write a weird story of real power without perfect psychological detachment from the human scene, and a magic prism of imagination which suffuses them and style alike with that grotesquerie and disquieting distortion characteristic of morbid vision. Only a cynic can create horror - for behind every masterpiece of the sort must reside a driving daemonic force that despises the human race and its illusions, and longs to pull them to pieces and mock them.”

WritingHumansRealStoriesForceImaginationPerfectRaceBehindsVisionPiecesMagicStyleHorrorSceneIllusionDrivingPsychologicalHuman RaceCharacteristicsDespiseMasterpieceDetachmentDistortionMockMorbidCynicReal PowerPrisms
Author:H. P. Lovecraft
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“A giant as we hoped, in truth, a dwarf; A barrel of slop that shines on Lethe's wharf', Which at first seemed a vessel with sweet wine For thirsty lips. So down the swift decline You went through sloven spirit, craven heart And cynic indolence. And here the art Of molding clay has caught you for the nonce And made your shame our shame ~ Your head in bronze!”

FirstsHeartArtMadeSpiritAtheismSweetShameWineShiningLipsCaughtGiantsDeclineClayVesselBarrelsThirstyDwarfsIndolenceCynicDwarvesBronzeShine OnMoldingLetheSweet Wine
Author:Edgar Lee Masters
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“The cynic who twitted Aristippus by observing that the philosopher who could dine on herbs might despise the company of a king, was well replied to by Aristippus, when he remarked that the philosopher who could enjoy the company or a king might also despise a dinner of herbs.”

WellsMightEnjoyCompanyKingsPhilosopherDinnerDespiseObservingHerbsCynicDine
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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