All 5 Uses of
cynical
in
The Screwtape Letters
- He is cynically indifferent to the dignity of His position, and ours, as pure spirits, and to human animals on their knees He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion.†
Chpt 4
- He will assume, at first only by his manner, but presently by his words, all sorts of cynical and sceptical attitudes which are not really his.†
Chpt 10 *
- All the abjection and self-hatred are designed, in the long run, solely for this end; unless they attain this end they do us little harm; and they may even do us good if they keep the man concerned with himself, and, above all, if self-contempt can be made the starting-point for contempt of other selves, and thus for gloom, cynicism, and cruelty.†
Chpt 14cynicism = believing that things usually go poorly and that selfish and insincere
- In the first place, humans who have not the gift of continence can be deterred from seeking marriage as a solution because they do not find themselves "in love", and, thanks to us, the idea of marrying with any other motive seems to them low and cynical.†
Chpt 18
- Instil into him an over-weening asceticism and then, when you have separated his sexuality from all that might humanise it, weigh in on him with it in some much more brutal and cynical form.†
Chpt 19
Definition:
someone who expects the worst -- especially of people (such as expecting them to be selfish and lie)