Cynical Manipulation Quotes

Hero­ism breaks its heart, and ide­al­ism its back, on the intran­si­gence of the cred­u­lous and the mediocre, manip­u­lated by the cyn­i­cal and the corrupt.

As you can see, I have memorized this utterly useless piece of information long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You’ve taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.

Promising something that seems popular at the time that you know you're never going to deliver - that's the kind of cynical politics that I don't want any part of.

That the politicians are permitted to carry on the same old disgraceful campaign from year to year is as insulting to the people as would be a gang of thieves coming back to a town they had robbed, staging a parade, and inviting the citizens to fall in and cheer.

This belief [that people and nations share the same motives and ethics] is … a product of the American psyche, which makes even the most cynical U.S. politicians susceptible to manipulation by those who operate within a different moral framework. […] The open, welcoming, and positive attitude that is the default setting in America is widely regarded in many parts of the world as evidence of gullibility, unseriousness, and naïveté. It is seen, sometimes justifiably, as an attitude that leaves people vulnerable to deception. Not because Americans are stupid, but because their desire to believe in the good of others makes it harder for them to recognize when others are not, in fact, good.

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

A very adroit … hypocrite.... He has made our statesmanship a thing of empty elocution. He has covered his fear of standing for the right behind a veil of rhetorical phrases …. He hasn't a touch of idealism in him. He is a silly doctrinaire at times and an utterly selfish and cold-blooded politician always