Altruism and Cynicism

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.

Henry Louis Mencken, in Altruism and Cynicism

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

One nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other people.

Lucille S. Harper, in Altruism and Cynicism

If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.

George Orwell, 1984, in Altruism and Cynicism

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

Bette Midler, in Altruism and Cynicism

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

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

Henry Louis Mencken, in Altruism and Cynicism

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

Mother Teresa, in Altruism and Cynicism

We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

Mother Teresa, in Altruism and Cynicism

He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.

H. H. Munro, in Altruism and Cynicism

Hope is nature's veil for hiding truth's nakedness.

Alfred Nobel, in Altruism and Cynicism

All lies are told with a straight face. It is truth that's said with a dismissive giggle.

P. J. O'Rourke, in Altruism and Cynicism

Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.

P. J. O'Rourke, All the Trouble in the World, in Altruism and Cynicism and Work and Recreation

My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.

Ashleigh Brilliant, Brilliant Thoughts (copyright info: www.ashleighbrilliant.com), in Altruism and Cynicism

I don't want any "yes-men" around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.

Samuel Goldwyn, in Altruism and Cynicism

A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.

Gian Vincenzo Gravina, in Altruism and Cynicism

A learned County Court judge in a book of memoirs recently said that the overwhelming amount of his time on the bench was taken up "with people who are persuaded by persons whom they do not know to enter into contracts that they do not understand to purchase goods that they do not want with money that they have not got."

Lord Greene, in Altruism and Cynicism and Law and Politics

Grub first, then ethics.

Bertolt Brecht, in Altruism and Cynicism

Please don't lie to me, unless you're absolutely sure I'll never find out the truth.

Ashleigh Brilliant, Brilliant Thoughts (copyright info: www.ashleighbrilliant.com), in Altruism and Cynicism

A book may be compared to the life of your neighbor. If it be good, it cannot last too long; if bad, you cannot get rid of it too early.

H. Brooke, in Altruism and Cynicism