What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth. – Roland Barthes
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. – Henry Ward Beecher
A cynic is a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be. – Ambrose Bierce
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song. – Lord (George Gordon) Byron
Im a hopeful cynic. – Tracy Chapman
By rights, satire is a lonely and introspective occupation, for nobody can describe a fool to the life without much patient self-inspection. – Frank Moore Colby
I am skeptical in principle, gullible in practice. – Mason Cooley
A cynic is just a man who found out when he was ten that there wasnt any Santa Claus, and hes still upset. – James G. Cozzens
Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded. – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Blows are sarcasms turned stupid. – George Eliot
Dont be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Dont bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives. Dont waste yourself in rejection, or bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Cynicism is cheap — you can buy it at any Monoprix store — its built into all poor-quality goods. – Graham Greene
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future. – Sydney J. Harris
It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to. – Fannie Hurst
It is difficult not to write satire. – Juvenal
It is said that truth comes from the mouths of fools and children: I wish every good mind which feels an inclination for satire would reflect that the finest satirist always has something of both in him. – G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. – H. L. Mencken
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. – H. L. Mencken
