Altruism and Cynicism
173 aphorisms · 15 comments
Aphorisms in This Category
41–60 (174)
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/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.
tiny.ag/58hbs9pq · submitted 1997
It's not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.
tiny.ag/r1bfukdv · submitted 1997
Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.
tiny.ag/wqt4ciab · submitted 1997
A rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way.
tiny.ag/dfwohelg · submitted 1997
It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.
tiny.ag/43mefad8 · submitted 1997
All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act -- is founded on compromise and barter.
tiny.ag/ixldmygb · submitted 1997
A reasonable man adapts himself to suit his environment. An unreasonable man persists in attempting to adapt his environment to suit himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw, in Altruism and Cynicism and Vice and Virtue
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.
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.
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.
tiny.ag/asecpbyl · submitted 1997
A cynic is a person searching for an honest man, with a stolen lantern.
tiny.ag/dtxsg5kf · submitted 1997
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is statistics.
tiny.ag/hq8w7xao · submitted 1997
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
tiny.ag/apirm627 · submitted 1997
You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
tiny.ag/vinogpxg · submitted 1997
A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you.
tiny.ag/dxokyfu8 · submitted 1997
It's better to be quotable than to be honest.
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/kdbyxotm · submitted 1997
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
41–60 (174)