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/kdbyxotm  ·  submitted 1997

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

John Steinbeck, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/euochyxn  ·  submitted 1997

The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.

Daniel Schorr, in Altruism and Cynicism and Success and Failure

tiny.ag/q93dw7gi  ·  submitted 1997

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.

Albert Schweitzer, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/vgoawlvx  ·  submitted 1997

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.

William Shakespeare, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/lvmeyokh  ·  submitted 1997

Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.

William Shakespeare, in Altruism and Cynicism

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/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/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/znd6chuu  ·  submitted 1997

I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.

Adolf Hitler, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/dochckvh  ·  submitted 1997

Mein Kampf (paperback)

By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell -- and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/nzeorxiy  ·  submitted 1997

Every calling is great when greatly pursued.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/sq9g8eav  ·  submitted 1997

Dune (paperback)

Kindness is the beginning of cruelty.

Frank Herbert, Dune, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/iobj0muk  ·  submitted 1997

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

Lillian Hellman, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/u1edofwc  ·  submitted 1997

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

Lucille S. Harper, in Altruism and Cynicism