The cynics are right nine times out of ten.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that skeptics often have a valid point, most of the time.
H. L. Mencken highlights the tendency of cynics to be accurate in their skepticism, suggesting that critical perspectives are often justified. The implication is that many optimistic viewpoints may overlook important truths revealed through doubt and criticism, therefore encouraging a cautious approach to believing in the positive.
In practice
In a debate about the value of optimism in policymaking.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you?
The finished man, you know, is difficult to please; a growing mind will ever show you gratitude. --Faust 1, lines 182-3
Have patience with the quarrelsomeness of the stupid. It is not easy to comprehend that one does not comprehend.
I remember my first visit with my guru. He had shown that he read my mind. So I looked at the grass and I thought, 'My god, he's going to know all the things I don't want people to know.' I was really embarrassed. Then I looked up and he was looking directly at me with unconditional love.
Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot read The hunter's waking thoughts.
When you expect to get into a negotiation, you expect to be faced by a guy that's going to attack you, a guy or gal that's going to attack or that they're going to try to get the best of you. Two-thirds of us, that makes us very defensive.
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