Both Uses of
cynical
in
The Fountainhead
- We're too cynical, too decadent.†
Chpt 1.12 *
- A society woman wrote an article on the exotic shrines she had seen in her dangerous jungle travels, praised the touching faith of the savages and reproached modern man for cynicism; the Stoddard Temple, she said, was a symptom of softness and decadence; the illustration showed her in breeches, one slim foot on the neck of a dead lion.†
Chpt 2.12cynicism = believing that things usually go poorly and that selfish and insincere
Definition:
someone who expects the worst -- especially of people (such as expecting them to be selfish and lie)