Aphorisms Galore!

Altruism and Cynicism

173 aphorisms  ·  15 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/vwaksnik  ·  submitted 1997

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

Oscar Wilde, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/0fxuodhb  ·  submitted 1997

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Oscar Wilde, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/gymh6otw  ·  submitted 1997

Man is the only animal that blushes -- or needs to.

Mark Twain, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/ne1vhxlr  ·  submitted 1997

Never tell the truth to those unworthy of it.

Mark Twain, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/7do2rifh  ·  submitted 1997

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

Mark Twain, What is Man?, 1906, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/r6bo5aic  ·  submitted 1998 by Mark van Essen

Black, white, brown, yellow or even red, we piss with our pants down, and go naked to bed.

Mark van Essen, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/otpgz4zj  ·  submitted 1997

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.

Gore Vidal, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/5otyux70  ·  submitted 1997

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.

Voltaire, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/58hbs9pq  ·  submitted 1997

It's not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.

Addison Walker, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/amzxlbug  ·  submitted 1997

All humans are hypocrites; the biggest hypocrite of all is the one who claims to detest hypocrisy.

Peter Wastholm, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/k8lcsqdw  ·  submitted 1997

Calvin and Hobbes (paperback)

Heck, what's a little extortion among friends?

Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/dliywafc  ·  submitted 1997

Calvin and Hobbes (paperback)

I know the world isn't fair, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?

Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/7hdzmwue  ·  submitted 1997

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

George Bernard Shaw, in Altruism and Cynicism and Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/itutlzy5  ·  submitted 1997

The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it.

George Bernard Shaw, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/9m1hmtxp  ·  submitted 1997

When a man wants to murder a tiger, it's called sport; when the tiger wants to murder him, it's called ferocity.

George Bernard Shaw, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/lkgjcwse  ·  submitted 1997

Baloney is flattery so thick that it can not be true and blarney is flattery so thin that we like it.

Fulton J. Sheen, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/asecpbyl  ·  submitted 1997

A cynic is a person searching for an honest man, with a stolen lantern.

Edgar A. Shoaff, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/0ihiksxu  ·  submitted 1997

On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.

H. Allen Smith, Let the Crabgrass Grow, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/dtxsg5kf  ·  submitted 1997

A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is statistics.

Josef Stalin, in Altruism and Cynicism and Life and Death

tiny.ag/kdbyxotm  ·  submitted 1997

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

John Steinbeck, in Altruism and Cynicism