Cynicism

"Cynicism is full of naive disappointments."

"Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost."

"Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be."

"Cynics are disappointed romantics; they keep looking for someone to admire and can never find anyone."

"There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing."

"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. The cynic puts all human actions into two classes — openly bad and secretly bad."

"Cynicism formulates issues clearly, but only to dismiss them."

"Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth."

"Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us."

"If you scratch a cynic, you will find a disappointed idealist."

"People who are stupid, unscrupulous, or hypocritical, think that others are just the same. And — this is the real pity — they treat them as if they were."

"Cynicism is intellectual treason."