Aphorisms Galore!

Altruism and Cynicism

173 aphorisms  ·  15 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/ooxlc4p0  ·  submitted 1997

Boring people are a reflection of boring people.

Doug Horton, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/pmag8qvw  ·  submitted 1997

Buying a lie is one thing, giving it away for free is quite another.

Doug Horton, 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/znd6chuu  ·  submitted 1997

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

Adolf Hitler, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/0iltdhzx  ·  submitted 1997

The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.

Adolf Hitler, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/k40t75a9  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/t4nrvjai  ·  submitted 1997

Pooh's Little Instruction Book (hardcover)

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

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

tiny.ag/ijcqpq8f  ·  submitted 1997

Do good by stealth.

Ray Prince, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/lhf5xdsj  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/ajwgbtvf  ·  submitted 1997

If you were arrested for kindness, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Unknown, in Altruism and Cynicism and Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/iobj0muk  ·  submitted 1997

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

Lillian Hellman, 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/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/458vctqs  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/qr9ysjed  ·  submitted 1997

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Albert Einstein, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/bx0vlces  ·  submitted 1997

Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else -- unless it is an enemy.

Albert Einstein, in Altruism and Cynicism and Success and Failure

tiny.ag/l9caw6tv  ·  submitted 1997

A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.

George Eliot, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/7guwnmr1  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/6jxieopf  ·  submitted 1997

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

Gian Vincenzo Gravina, in Altruism and Cynicism

tiny.ag/mcsdq3k5  ·  submitted 1997

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