All I ask is one thing, and I'm asking this particularly of young people: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.

Life— the way it really is— is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse

If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

To be naive is to be unaware of how stupid and cruel other people are; but, by some definitions, ignorance is nearly the opposite of naivety in being a kind of cynicism, in being unaware of their intelligence and humanity. It seems to be a normal although unfortunate case that the great many of us consciously abhor ignorance in others yet subconsciously practice it ourselves: as naivety is apparent and well-known to inflict its damage upon oneself; whereas the alternative and the easier, ignorance, its damage upon others.

There is this common notion that people are shallow and ignorant until they go out and see the world. I, on the other hand, went out and in comparison realized I was in pretty good standing.

As for the belief that humanity is mostly good, Secular humanism, when in that alignment, always presumes the existence of a higher power, or some god-like influence on man. Because it then becomes the belief that people are generally good and should be protected from the wiles of religion, as though this dark, vague and ignorant force once fell from the heavens, latched onto the purer hearts and minds of men and women, and, in all its forms, controlled and polluted the whole of human history. He says, 'When we defeat religion, humanity will be free.' But, if he were duly consistent, if he were really at all as secular as he claims, he might as well admit to what is actually an underlying brand of nihilistic cynicism: 'When we defeat humans, humanity will be free.

I never feel unsafe except for when the majority is on my side.

Cynic:-A blackguard whose faulty visions see things as they are, and not as they ought to be.

There's nothing like a hardship song to set my toes a-tappin.

Nobody loves me like my mother and she could be jivin' too.

Never accept an invitation from a stranger unless he offers you candy.

Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.

The worst cynicism: a belief of luck.

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

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

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

It is only the cynicism that is born of success that is penetrating and valid.

The cynics in life are the people who are always trying to do things for people who don't want things done for them.

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

Life-the way it really is-is a battle not between Bad and Good, but between Bad and Worse.