The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.
Source:
-- Henry Ward Beecher, (Jun 24 1813-1887), US clergyman, abolitionist; He was famed as an orator of anti-slavery and woman suffrage; wrote Seven Lectures to Young Men, 1844.