Aphorisms Galore!

Altruism and Cynicism

173 aphorisms  ·  15 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/avosjwgh  ·  submitted 1997

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

Marshall McLuhan, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/rxylykkp  ·  submitted 1997

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Mother Teresa, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/xhg05ovb  ·  submitted 1997

I never know how much of what I say is true.

Bette Midler, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/b4tuds1y  ·  submitted 1997

There's always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong.

Henry Louis Mencken, in Altruism and Cynicism and Science and Religion

tiny.ag/7gz85bqy  ·  submitted 1997

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

Henry Louis Mencken, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/jcmyu3ji  ·  submitted 1997

Demagogue: One who preaches a doctrine he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

Henry Louis Mencken, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/jwmd8ebc  ·  submitted 1997

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.

Henry Louis Mencken, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/tnirgb8y  ·  submitted 1997

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking.

Henry Louis Mencken, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/g7qmt4qj  ·  submitted 1997

Welcome thy neighbor into thy fallout shelter. He'll come in handy if you run out of food.

Dean McLaughlin, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/bn17or2l  ·  submitted 1997

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.

Groucho Marx, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/hwvmnmsf  ·  submitted 1997

I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member.

Groucho Marx, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/r3gvjlqa  ·  submitted 1997

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

Abraham Lincoln, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/ojk8xbtj  ·  submitted 1997

The Devil's Dictionary (paperback)

Bigot: One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/uaqbnf1k  ·  submitted 1997

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

Martin Luther King, Jr., in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/q5s2gnzy  ·  submitted 1997

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.

Ann Landers, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/eh4xjmzt  ·  submitted 1997

Love thy neighbor as thyself, but choose your neighborhood.

Louise Beal, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/vr4hxjva  ·  submitted 1997

The Devil's Dictionary (paperback)

Egoist: A person of low taste, more interested in themselves than in me.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/dxvyak3f  ·  submitted 1997

The Devil's Dictionary (paperback)

Eulogy: Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/nqcfjvh0  ·  submitted 1997

Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams.

Mary Ellen Kelly, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/rxmfom0a  ·  submitted 1997

The relationship between truth and a newspaper is like the relationship between the color green and the number seven. Occasionally you will see the number seven written in green, but you learn not to expect this.

Garrison Keillor, in Altruism and Cynicism