“The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never fails to see a bad one.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

Lectures to Young Men: On Various Important Subjects (1856) Lecture IV : Portrait Gallery
Miscellany
Context: The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. The cynic puts all human actions into two classes — openly bad and secretly bad.

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Henry Ward Beecher75

American clergyman and activist 1813–1887

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