127 Political Cynicism Quotes

Following is our list of political cynicism quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about what is political cynicism.

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Famous Political Cynicism Quotes

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? — Barack Obama

The worst thing that can happen in a democracy - as well as in an individual's life - is to become cynical about the future and lose hope. — Hillary Clinton

Cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach honesty. — Friedrich Nietzsche

The opposite of creativity is cynicism — Esa Saarinen

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

I think that if a person doesn't feel cynical then they're out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization - you can't just swallow it whole. — Frank Zappa

A sceptic finds Dallas absurd. A cynic thinks the public doesn't — Clive James

False hope really makes you cynical. — Sayings

Politics is pervasive. Everything is political and the choice to be "apolitical" is usually just an endorsement of the status quo and the unexamined life. — Rebecca Solnit

Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty. - Norman Douglas

Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty. — Norman Douglas

Cynic: an idealist whose rose-colored glasses have been removed, snapped in two and stomped into the ground, immediately improving his vision — Rick Bayan

Politics is the exercise of power without merit. — Naval Ravikant

The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. — Oscar Wilde

Politics is the choice between the lesser of two evils. — George Orwell

Politics has become infused with narcissism in America. — John Oliver

Short Political Cynicism Quotes

  • Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected. — Malala Yousafzai
  • Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity. — Vera Brittain
  • Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. — H. L. Mencken
  • Politics and hypocrites is turning us all into lunatics. — Marvin Gaye
  • Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. — George Carlin
  • Moral outrage is the most powerful motivating force in politics. — Morton Blackwell
  • Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack. — George S. Patton

Political Cynicism Image Quotes

Political cynicism quote When words are both true and kind they can change the world.
When words are both true and kind they can change the world.

Political Cynicism Quotes

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it. — Harry S. Truman

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. — Gilbert K. Chesterton

It will never be possible for any length of time for any group of the American people, either by reason of wealth or learning or inheritance or economic power, to retain any mandate, any permanent authority to arrogate to itself the political control of American public life. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Political cynicism quote Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.
Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

I've been a politician and so I'm sometimes cynical about what politicians won't do. When I hear a politician say something that makes no sense whatsoever, I think there's one of two things there: There's money or the promise of money. — Allan Boesak

When people treat corruption as a routine part of the process, you have something far worse than wrongdoing or moral failing. You have a political cancer that breeds cynicism about democratic government and infects all of society. — Edward Brooke

Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason? Why, when it prospers, none dare call it treason. — John Harington

Political cynicism quote Be gentle with yourself, you're doing the best you can.
Be gentle with yourself, you're doing the best you can.

Without the truth of the people, politics degenerates into mere spectacle and democracy declines, leaving demagoguery and cynicism to fill the void. — Jerry Brown

What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism. — Pauline Kael

The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts. — William Shakespeare

I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business. — Richard M. Nixon

Cynicism Quotes

We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love. — Robert Fulghum

An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation. — Bertrand Russell

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. — H. L. Mencken

Political cynicism quote Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.
Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.

What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position. — Stokely Carmichael

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything that it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. — Erica Jong

If you're too open-minded; your brains will fall out. — Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Political cynicism quote There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference. — A. A. Milne

Things of the spirit are what count: brotherhood – in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad; cheerfulness – in a day when the pessimists have the floor and cynics are popular; service – in a day when millions are interested in getting or grasping, rather than giving — E. Urner Goodman

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? — Dorothy Parker

Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness. — Leon Trotsky

Cynical Quotes

There's nothing more frustrating than seeing cynics sit there and say, 'Well, nobody can make any more money because Microsoft and Intel own everything.' Is the software industry mature, or is it embryonic? I would say it's embryonic. There will be a hundred more Microsofts, not just one. — Michael Saylor

Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed. — Naval Ravikant

A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. — Joseph Pulitzer

Political cynicism quote Be the person your dog thinks you are.
Be the person your dog thinks you are.

People say you become more cynical as you get older. That hasn't been my experience. — Tucker Carlson

This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. - William Shakespeare

This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. — William Shakespeare

I hear loads of cynics saying that I'll never be able to change anything. They say that junk food marketing and the ready availability of fast food is just too powerful. But I'd say in response, screw you. I know that most people, if they're really honest, are fed up with the same old rubbish — Jamie Oliver

Political cynicism quote The stronger you become, the gentler you will be.
The stronger you become, the gentler you will be.

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian. — Lionel Trilling

I believe that history is not made by cynics. It is made by realists who are not afraid to dream. Let us be these people. — Tzipi Livni

Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. — Calvin Coolidge

Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community. — John W. Gardner

Being Cynical Quotes

A happy home is one in which each spouse grants the possibility that the other may be right, though neither believes it — Donald M. Fraser

Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say - nothing can stop us now! — Thabo Mbeki

Never be a cynic, even a gentle one. Never help out a sneer, even at the devil. — Vachel Lindsay

Political cynicism quote Being polite is so rare these days, thats its often confused with flirting.
Being polite is so rare these days, thats its often confused with flirting.

To give [the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba] even covert support is on a par with the hypocrisy and cynicism for which the United States is constantly denouncing the Soviet Union in the United Nations and elsewhere. This point will not be lost on the rest of the world, nor on our own consciences. — J. William Fulbright

The truth is, I pretend to be a cynic, but I am really a dreamer who is terrified of wanting something she may never get. — Joanna Hoffman

Love is everything it's cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. — Erica Jong

Political cynicism quote Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, ut becau
Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, ut because you are.

The cynic is his own worst enemy. It requires far less skill to run a wrecking company than it does to be an architect. — Uell Stanley Andersen

Try to be forgotten. Go live in the country. Stay in mourning for two years, then remarry, but choose somebody decent. — Alexander Pushkin

Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. — Stephen Colbert

The terrible predicament of a beautiful girl is that only an experienced womanizer, someone cynical and without scruple, feels up to the challenge. More often than not, she will lose her virginity to some filthy lowlife in what proves to be the first step in an irrevocable decline. — Michel Houellebecq

Cynical Love Quotes

Strange to say what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition. — Samuel Pepys

History is neither written nor made without love or hate. — Theodor Mommsen

Love is the fart Of every heart It pains the man when 'tis kept close, And others doth offend, when 'tis let loose. — John Suckling

Political cynicism quote Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They're underused.
Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They're underused.

HYPOTHESES: Evil is boring. Cynicism is idiotic. Fear is a bad habit. Despair is lazy. Joy is fascinating. Love is an act of heroic genius. Pleasure is our birthright. Receptivity is a superpower. — Rob Brezsny

As Dostoevski said: 'Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. — Dorothy Day

You're killing yourself with cynicism. Your idols got taken away from you one by one and now you have nothing to give your love to. — Philip K. Dick

Political cynicism quote Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician and I'll show you a crook.
Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician and I'll show you a crook.

Love has the power of making you believe what you would normally treat with the deepest suspicion. — Honore Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau

Watching you walk out of my life does not make me bitter or cynical about love. But rather makes me realize that if I wanted so much to be with the wrong person, how beautiful it will be when the right person comes along. — Nicholas Sparks

We muckraked, not because we hated our world, but because we loved it. We were not hopeless, we were not cynical, we were not bitter. — Ray Stannard Baker

We saw too much beauty to be cynical, felt too much joy to be dismissive, climbed too many mountains to be quitters, kissed too many girls to be deceivers, saw too many sunrises not to be believers, broke too many strings to be pro's and gave too much love to be concerned where it goes. — Glen Hansard

No Cynic Quotes

Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone. — Miller Williams

If the great Government of the United States were a private corporation no bank would take its name on a piece of paper, because it has cynically repudiated the words engraved upon its bonds. — Garet Garrett

Never, ever, let anyone tell you what you can and can't do. Prove the cynics wrong. Pity them for they have no imagination. The sky's the limit. Your sky. Your limit. Now. Let's dance. — Tom Hiddleston

When all is said and done, no literature can outdo the cynicism of real life; you won't intoxicate with one glass someone who has already drunk up a whole barrel. — Anton Chekhov

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes. — James Kern Feibleman

The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression. — H. L. Mencken

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

There is no comparing the brutality and cynicism of today's pop culture with that of forty years ago: from High Noon to Robocop is a long descent. — Charles Krauthammer

Perhaps no philosopher is more correct than the cynic. The happiness of the animal, that thorough cynic, is the living proof of cynicism. — Friedrich Nietzsche

There are no letters in the mailbox And there are no grapes upon the vine And there are no chocolates in your boxes anymore And there are no diamonds in the mine — Leonard Cohen

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More Political Cynicism Quotes

If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not be by revolutionary groups burning government offices and occupying the broadcasting and newspaper offices of the world. It will come from disenchantment, cynicism and despair caused by the realisation that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented. — Tony Benn

Cant is always rather nauseating; but before we condemn political hypocrisy, let us remember that it is the tribute paid by men of leather to men of God, and that the acting of the part of someone better than oneself may actually commit one to a course of behavior perceptibly less evil than what would be normal and natural in an avowed cynic. — Aldous Huxley

I do believe that freedom isn't free - but today the corporate and political right wing is trying to cheapen this truly American value. They've been cynically using the word 'freedom' to rally the American public against its own best interests. — Richard Trumka

IS [Islamic State] has played a major role in helping Bashar al-Assad to reposition Syria on the international scene. Now, it is almost impossible to come up with a solution that would exclude him. The political game appears to be very cynical indeed. — Tariq Ramadan

Concerning politics: "The American media is like a watchdog who has developed an affection for the burglar." — Ron Dart

If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign. — George W. Bush

Students now arrive at the university ignorant and cynical about our political heritage, lacking the wherewithal to be either inspired by it or seriously critical of it. — Allan Bloom

I'm cynical about society, politics, newspapers, government. But I'm not cynical about life, love, goodness, death. That's why I really don't want to be labeled a cynic. — John Lennon

..I think there is less cynicism about human rights than there was. The work we are doing is part of the overall pattern of human development, whatever the political system, whatever the country, whatever the cultural background, whatever the religion. — Martin Ennals

A superhero is someone who, at some point or in some way, inspires hope or is the enemy of cynicism. Even if you bog it down with political allegory, or even if you're doing celebrity allegory. You still need to take the cynical out of it. — Mark Waid

Eleanor Roosevelt is a political force of enormous ambitions. I believe she is a menace, unscrupulous as to truth, vain and cynical - all with a pretense of exaggerated kindness and human feeling which deceives millions of gullible persons. — Westbrook Pegler

The recommendation by the Arkansas Supreme Court Disciplinary Committee that President Clinton be disbarred is like a tender green shoot of integrity rising from the stinking junkyard of American public life. At last, some official body has come to a decision about Clinton's conduct that is untainted by politics, cowardice or cynicism. — Mona Charen

I think that the memory of Armenia's genocide opened my eyes at an early age to the existence of political cynicism. — Serj Tankian

Render any politician down and there's enough fat to fry an egg. — Spike Milligan

If you keep on excusing, you eventually give your blessing to the slave camp, to cowardly force, to organized executioners, to the cynicism of great political monsters; you finally hand over your brothers. — Albert Camus

Working together during the past three years, we have confounded the skeptics and the cynics. We've shown that here in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans can come together, put politics aside, and make tough decisions when times demand it. — Mark Warner

I felt slightly superior to student politics, for instance. I had no reason to think this, but I thought of myself as slightly more seasoned. I became quite cynical talking to my student friends. — Kazuo Ishiguro

Americans, though apparently impressed by ghastly sentimentality and outrageous hypocrisy, are by nature much more politically cynical than Canadians. In their longer history they have had much more to be cynical about. They demand a vulgar show, enjoy it, guffaw, and forget it the next morning. When a new U.S. President takes office all bets are off and his campaign platform is dismantled and stored away. — Gordon Donaldson

Saying you have a political solution is like saying you can write a pop song that's going to stay at the top of the list forever. I don't have many illusions about this, but I'm not cynical about it. — Bruce Sterling

I think there's a weapon of cynicism to say, 'Protest doesn't work. Organizing doesn't work. Y'all are a bunch of hippies. You know, it doesn't do anything,' because, frankly, it's said out of fear, because it is a potent force for political change. — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

What I'm asking for is hard. It's easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn't possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don't matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future. — Barack Obama

In volume and velocity, the new media are making available testimony on a previously unimaginable scale. I'm neither as romantic about the new media landscape, nor cynical. But what's indisputable is the experimental energy that digital forms are unleashing. Among my students and among up-and-coming artists, I find myself startled by the creative responses to the technological, environmental, and political upheavals of our time. — Rob Nixon

There are realities that one needs to deal with, but very often what we are told is political reality is merely cynicism. One could equally say that slavery is a reality, and misogyny too. — Payam Akhavan

The intelligent Trump supporter will be someone who is so cynical about politics that he wants the world blown up, and doesn't care if the person doing the blowing up is an obnoxious, infantile vulgarian. I don't know where to find these people. Do you? — Gene Weingarten

People often say that Trump "speaks the truth," right? But I think what really is happening is he's become a symbol of the kind of cynicism the American public feels towards politicians. He embodies, and he's mobilizing, that cynicism. Because people have no faith in politics anymore. People actually believe that politics is dead, because it's bought and sold. — Henry Giroux

A lot of young people are very cynical about the political framework because they see the countries that preach democracy and human rights being countries largely responsible for the problems in their region. — Mary Robinson

The big frustration for me is that people are growing so cynical about politics that you see them basically shrug and say, "Oh, yeah. Who cares that Harper is shutting down debate? Who cares that he's building prisons, and everything? All the politicians are the same so why should we be outraged about one rather than the other?" And my point is Canadians need to wake up. This is not the Canada they'd recognize if they looked closely. — Justin Trudeau

I'm at a place of deep cynicism about American politics. — Grace Dunham

Of course, the Clintons are not only corrupt but cynical as well. They accept that the progressive media, the foundations, the universities, the bureaucracies, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley honor power more than trendy left-wing politics; they well understand that their fans will, for them, make the necessary adjustments to contextualize Clinton criminality or amorality. — Victor Davis Hanson

I think [John Adams] developed a much deeper suspicion of France and the other European powers than he had earlier. He lost much if not all of the utopian thinking about international politics and diplomacy expressed in his Model Treaty of 1776 and became much more cynical about the world. — Gordon S. Wood

Its [Dreams from My Father] also a reflection about how we might start a better conversation in our democracy about how to solve problems, because it feels as if our political system - it just seems there is so much cynicism and negativity in our politics. — Barack Obama

Sarah Palin is a great example of someone that just stirs the pot for the sake of the attention. No vision, no critical thinking, no backup to her statements. Just to incite little riots everywhere and capitalize upon it financially. To me, she is a microcosm of the ultimate cynicism in American politics. — Rosanne Cash

If it's cynical, risky politics that brings a lighted match and a can of gas near the Democratic coalition, it should be named as such, and its consequences understood, and it should become part of the complex calculus we're all building to help us understand these campaigns. — Ezra Klein

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