Sarah Polley Quotes

It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerves give to wisdom.

... common sense is very rare.

The foolish reject what they see and not what they think; the wise reject what they think and not what they see.

Cynicism is what passes for insight when courage is lacking

I’m not a child. Don’t talk to me like I am. (Kiara) No, you’re worse. You’re an adult who still thinks the world is a beautiful place, filled with people who will help you just for the sake of being nice. Wake up and smell the bloodbath and humility the rest of us have to cope with. (Syn)

No matter how bad you think something is, when you look into it, it's always worse.

Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.

I don't consider myself a cynic. I think of myself as a skeptic and a realist.

There is less misery in being cheated than in that kind of wisdom which perceives, or thinks it perceives, that all mankind are cheats.

I'm not as trusting as people think I am. Sure, I see the best in people, but that doesn't mean it's really there.

You mustn't underestimate an audience's intelligence.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

People like Bill Maher, who brags about being a cynic, it sickens me. I am the least cynical person I know, and I am very, very skeptical.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

You can observe a lot by watching.

A smart man only believes half of what he hears, a wise man knows which half.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

My definition of an educated man is the fellow who knows the right thing to do at the time it has to be done. You can be sincere and still be stupid.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.