Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the furthest 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. Cynics always say 'no.' But saying 'yes' begins things. Saying 'yes' is how things grow.
The cure for cynicism is simply to engage honestly.
Cynicism stems from disappointment. Cynical and faithless people were not always like that. They were filled with possibilities and hope as kids. But they tried and perhaps failed.
Cynicism means the conduit to the soul has a great kink in it, like a garden hose in which nothing flows in either direction.
One can never take the cynicism one comes across in life too seriously.
Perhaps the biggest myth about cynicism is that it deepens with age. I think what really happens is that experience painfully rips away layers of scales from our eyes, and so we do indeed become more cynical about many of the things we naively accepted when younger.
Intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas.
There is no power in cynicism. There is no forward thrust in cynicism.
Cynicism is intellectual dandyism.
It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.