Altruism and Cynicism

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

Mark Twain, in Altruism and Cynicism

Never tell the truth to those unworthy of it.

Mark Twain, in Altruism and Cynicism

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

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.

Gore Vidal, in Altruism and Cynicism

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

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

In this world, there is one terrible thing, and that is that everyone has his reasons.

Jean Renoir, in Altruism and Cynicism

No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.

Titus Maccius Plautus, in Altruism and Cynicism

A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.

Joan Powers, Pooh's Little Instruction Book, in Altruism and Cynicism

Do good by stealth.

Ray Prince, in Altruism and Cynicism

Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.

Ayn Rand, (commencement speech to Naval Academy), in Altruism and Cynicism

An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.

Will Rogers, in Altruism and Cynicism

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.

Blaise Pascal, in Altruism and Cynicism

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

Dean McLaughlin, in Altruism and Cynicism

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

Henry Louis Mencken, 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

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

Alfred Nobel, 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

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

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