I'm too cynical

I'm too cynical.

Which books will make me hate people less?

commence with the hellenes

Plutarch's Lives
The Gospel of Matthew
Novels by Graham Greene and Willa Cather

Life an User's Manual- Georges Perec

Aristotle
Notes from the Underground

joyce
pynchon
wallace ...

say ... i'm not even memeing ... maybe Veeky Forums is a more humanist board than you'd think

Read Whitman

Hot new meme incoming

The Things They Carried.

May seem like an odd choice but it did restore my empathy.

oh shit waddup

Harry Potter series

>new

memes go stale faster than bread

her clenched fist and victory yell are really at odds with the cute pink clip in her hair

This image is the ultimate representation of sexuality in its highest form.

Actually accomplish something in your life and you will get over your cynicism.

>Notes from the Underground

most definitely wallace. pynchon and joyce not so much.

its dat boi

Tolstoy

This doesn't happen. This was a pretty empty statement. Its like saying "Actually work in a coal mine and you will get over Stoicism" or some other baseless statement. Even if you accomplish things and achieve you can still hate people and be negative.

notes from the underground will make you realize that hating people is basically guaranteed to make you miserable

tao te ching
zhuangzi

zen literature


FYI the reason you hate people (probably) is because you held or are trying to cling to a (false) expectation: that people are good. This expectation being destroyed by encountering people who do not live up to it creates mental tension which must be released in some emotional outburst or other behavioral change. People will react in a variety of ways, including diving headlong into a bitter, self-satisfying cynicism. But that's also clouded thinking.

You can trust people to be somewhat good, and somewhat bad.

That's something I've really only seen articulated in chink philosophy, dunno why. Not the false expectation bit, that's from somewhere else, the somewhat good somewhat bad part.

None. Go out and socialise

Read Anne of Green Gables

Seconded.

this

The Bible

he said he wanted to hate people less, not more

here come dat boi
oh shit waddup

You came to the wrong place

The Pale King

A heavy dose of good, introspective poetry, followed by a sufficient amount of sonder to flip your consciousness back to front.

how?? joyce is the most humanist writer period
and pynchon paints pretty much everyone except fascists (and even some fascists) as generally good people who just like to joke and party and dance and love

his work is very dark but it's also very .. what .. jolly? joyful? warm?

A broken heart and Petrarch

...

The Plague - Albert Camus

And I ain't even memeing friends. That book made me cry a tear. That was a first and so far last for me.

Plato's dialogues.

Tbh I don't know how to help cynics. I'm the exact opposite.

The Mailbox by Audrey Shafer.
The Goodness Gene
The Last Book in the Universe
The Giver trilogy
City of Ember series

agreed

I just finished reading it a couple days ago. I related to the character so much, and it made me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I don't want to turn into him.

Thats a good feeling to have

>Nostalgia for optimism
>Existing

Read your Schopenhauer and embrace pessimism. Make it your own.

nietszche is essentially schopenahuer expanded and improved.

face it 'i'm such a faggot but it's because life is inherently bad, yeh that's not a cop out xD' fags.

You're just too cowardly

yeah

so go out and socialise

If you actually connect with people (in a shallow or a deep way) I would find it hard not to be overcome by feelings of general "okayness," love, and respect for other humans.

Sitting in your room contemplating and looking back over your whole day is what will make you cynical if you don't have a good mindset.

You don't need a book for this. You need to read into your own shit ideas and question them. You also need to view yourself as a person as well. Currently you're placing yourself above others, but with a closer look you'll see that you do so only because you're afraid to recognize that you are just another imperfect person. Forgive yourself for being imperfect, then forgive others for being imperfect. Rejoice with them, and help eachother to be better. Simple shit.

Wrong, because most people are incapable of unconditional love, and any connection that is less than unconditional only serves as a reminder of what humanity lacks.

Try Les Miserables

It should be illegal to make a post with this many spooks

zhughazi

I always assume it was because I hate myself and I'm projecting

Hey, OP here.

I can get along with people fine. I realize that nobody is all good or all bad, and I appreciate that.

It's just I feel as if I pay way too much attention to the bad sides of people.

Thanks for the suggestions tho

no one cares, fuck off

...

A dictionary because you clearly have no understanding of what the word cynical means

>notes from the underground will make you realize that hating people is basically guaranteed to make you miserable

Seems more about being possessed by spooks desu

The bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric is the only book I've ever read that managed to portray an average person in a good light. Andric did this by introducing every single character not just with their physical portrait but by also giving the read a short summation of the character's life and telling a short story about them that gives you an idea of what kind of a person this character is. By the time you've finished this book you won't think that "all people are inherently good" or some other bullshit like that, but you'll see people around as individuals who have to deal with their own set of problems (their methods might be retarded) and you'll stop being a self-centered faggot that you are now.

Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Weird notobdy mentioned it yet.

If not for the content within but just the reminder that there was once a great emperor who strived to beat lifes struggles and do good for himself and the people.

i thought it was about anxiety

Les Mis

Many have said the Bible, Book of Mathew. Its a great start. Catch-22 is also good, it shows how we are all awkward and neurotic and how much more fun life is when we make light of the imperfections, selfishness and awkwardness in others. But really, you just need some exercise and some positive role models in your life. If you look for shit, you find shit. Look for gold...

This.

> When you are offended by any man's shameless conduct, immediately ask yourself, is it possible then that shameless men should not be in the world? No, It is not possible.
Do you then require what is impossible?
For this man also is one of those shameless men who must of necessity be in the world.
Let the same considerations be present in your mind in the case of the knave, and the faithless man, and for every man who does wrong in any way, for at the same time that you remind yourself that it is impossible that those kinds of men should not exist you will become more kindly disposed towards everyone individually.
It is useful to perceive this too, immediately when the occasion arises, the virtue, nature has given to man to oppose to every wrongful act, for she has given to men as an antidote against the stupid man, mildness, and against another kind of man, some other power, and in all cases it is possible for you to correct by teaching the man who has gone astray, for whoever goes astray will not achieve his final purpose, and is certainly fooling himself, besides wherein have you been injured?
For you will find that no one among those against whom you are irritated has done anything by which your mind could be made worst, but that which is evil to you and harmful has its foundation only in the mind, and what harm is done or what is there strange if the man who has not being instructed does the acts of an uninstructed man?
Consider whether you should not rather blame yourself because you did not expect such a man to err in such a way but you have means given to you by your reason to suppose that it was likely that he would commit this error and yet you have forgotten and are amazed that he has erred, but most of all when you blame him as ignorant or ungrateful stop yourself, for the fault is manifestly your own