cynic
n. A disappointed optimist.
 | | |  | | |  | | |  | | |  |
n. A man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
n. A person who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
n. And evangelist in the Church of Reality.
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be (hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eye to improve his vision).
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
n. A well informed optimist.
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
n. A pessimistically practical individual, one who believes that the glass is half-empty, and no one is likely to fill it up any time soon.
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cynical Quotations
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
— Sidney J. Harris
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt. Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves.
— Robert Anton Wilson
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.
— Lily Tomlin
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
— George Bernard Shaw
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cynicism is a virtue, especially for engineers.
— David Weinberger
| | | | | | | | | | | | |