Top 41 Quotes About Being Cynical
#1. We do not smirk at the misery or the merrymaking of immoral culture. We weep. Being pilgrims does not mean being cynical. The salt of the earth does not mock rotting meat. Where it can, it saves and seasons. And where it can't, it weeps.
John Piper
#2. You can't blame anyone for being cynical about politicians.
Peter Capaldi
#3. For me, a really radical position for journalism to take is to stop being cynical. Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.
Joe Klein
#4. It would be a sad day if we British stopped being cynical, but you sometimes wonder whether we overdo it.
Boris Johnson
#5. People have different ideas, emotional ideas, of what certain words mean, and they think of irony as something that's more associated with being cynical-it's kind of a put-down.
Jeff Koons
#6. It's exhausting being cynical. You are trying to be an immovable, angry rock in the middle of a stream. But the stream will not move. It is you that will be worn down to dull silt.
Caitlin Moran
#7. In a cruel and evil world, being cynical can allow you to get some entertainment out of it.
Daniel Waters
#8. I oscillate between being cynical and being naive on a regular basis. I always think that not much shocks me until something much too obvious does.
Rabih Alameddine
#9. Being cynical isn't necessarily being negative or bitter. It's a person who is wary of mistaking love for something that it's not and getting their heart broken.
Charlyne Yi
#10. Oh, let me be mawkish for the nonce! I am so tired of being cynical.
Vladimir Nabokov
#11. I'm getting old, thought Eileen Calder. Old and worn out and cynical. And being cynical is a lot worse than being old or worn out.
Charles Sheffield
#12. they were really having fun being cynical, and I didn't want to ruin it.
Stephen Chbosky
#13. I think the word 'earnest' kind of has a negative connotation on some level. I think one of the things that's happened is that being cynical is somehow conflated with being sophisticated. I think that's problematic, to say the least.
Josh Radnor
#14. And of course, the deepest irony about the young being cynical is that they are the ones that need to move, and dance, and trust the most.
Caitlin Moran
#15. 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.
Frank Zappa
#16. ***A SMALL SUGGESTION***
Or maybe there was a woman on Grande Strasse who now kept her library window open for another reason - but that's just be being cynical, or hopeful. Or both.
Markus Zusak
#18. We know that our world is corrupt and diseased but we're tired of being cynical and feeling helpless. What the hell, tilt at a windmill.
Cynthia Heimel
#19. Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica Jong
#20. This notion that's peddled by the religious right - that they are oppressed is not true. Sometimes it's a cynical ploy to move their agenda ahead. The classic example being that somehow secularists are trying to eliminate Christmas, which strikes me as some kind of manufactured controversy.
Barack Obama
#21. I do not want to be cynical, but if developing nations are kept backward by being told, again and again, you belong to the poor and you are there, where you actually belong, then nothing will change.
Paul Kagame
#22. Being just a little cynical will make you a much safer optimist.
Lisa Kleypas
#23. People like Bill Maher, who brags about being a cynic, it sickens me. I am the least cynical person I know, and I am very, very skeptical.
Penn Jillette
#24. It's what passes for wisdom, being ironic and cynical.
Barack Obama
#25. Americans are suffering so much from being in unrewarding environments that it has made us very cynical. I think that American suburbia has become a powerful generator of anxiety and depression.
James Howard Kunstler
#26. Some people say that true love is a myth, that soulmates don't exist. I feel sadness for those cynical souls. They'll never know the high that comes from being with the one you're meant to be with. They'll never experience the absolute rightness of finding their true mate.
E.K. Blair
#27. There is no other genre that deals with America better, in a subtextual way, than the Westerns being made in the different decades. The '50s Westerns very much put forth an Eisenhower idea of America, whereas the Westerns of the '70s were very cynical about America.
Quentin Tarantino
#28. It's kind of depressing, if you think about it. I mean, me being so young, and yet so cynical and suspicious.
Meg Cabot
#29. When people call me Sir Anthony I just think oh, that's a bit odd. But I'm not cynical about it. Um, I just feel more comfortable being called Tony or Mr. Hopkins, whatever name I'm called.
Anthony Hopkins
#30. Wintervale, by being so open, trusting, and artless his entire life, had made his more cynical friends hang on to their secrets. And in doing so, they had preserved themselves from the Bane.
Sherry Thomas
#31. It's so easy to manipulate an audience, but it's nearly always clear that you are being manipulated. I think even people that are not critically attuned are aware of cynical manipulation in film.
John Boorman
#32. I think Kennedy being assassinated changed the world. That shot changed everything about America, and made us cynical, made people discontent and angry.
Robert Osborne
#33. She discovered what others know only too well in a cynical way, that people prefer to believe in and worship a god who is remote rather than live out the godlike nature which is their inherent being.
Henry Miller
#34. If you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause ... then get your pathetic, cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!
Mark Waid
#35. I'm not cynical about marriage or romance. I enjoyed being married. And although being single was fun for a while, there was always the risk of dating someone who'd owned a lunch box with my picture on it.
Shaun Cassidy
#37. Being unhappy alone isn't all that much fun, but what's even tougher is playing one's part without forgetting one's lines, coping with other people's compassion, their comments, being there with the right line when they give the cue.
Francois Maspero
#38. I was going to stop being so cynical but probably nobody would even notice.
Jack Barker
#39. I have to stop being young. I have to get jaded. I have to be cynical. I have to stop speaking. I have to be invisible. He likes things that don't really exist.
Sarahbeth Purcell
#40. When you have to work with and exist amongst cynical, burned-out personnel on a set, it doesn't matter what you're shooting or how much you're being paid - it's not worth it.
Henry Rollins
#41. Capitalism is being attacked not because it is inefficient or misgoverned but because it is cynical. And indeed a society based on the assertion that private vices become public benefits cannot endure, no matter how impeccable its logic, no matter how great its benefits.
Peter Drucker
