Tao Te Ching

“The cynic, a parasite of civilization, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail. What would become of the cynic among a savage people where everyone, naturally and quite seriously, fulfills what the cynic farcically considers to be his personal role?”

— Ortega y Gassett, José 1883 – 1955 CE
Spanish philosopher, historian, and essayist
from The Revolt of the Masses (1929)