The Lawyer’s Well-Being Brief. . .Part I: When Cynicism Meant Believing in Human Potential
“When someone does something wrong, don’t forget the things they did right.”-Unknown
Welcome (back) to the Lawyer’s Well-Being Brief! Each week, I share insights and practical strategies to help us cultivate well-being and flourish — both personally and professionally. Live well! Lawyer well!
In the bustling streets of ancient Athens, a peculiar figure wanders with a lantern held high — in broad daylight. He stops strangers. Studies their faces. Lifts the flame a little closer. When asked what he is doing, he replies:
“I am looking for an honest man.”
The man is Diogenes of Sinope — the philosopher most closely associated with the birth of Cynicism.
History remembers him as eccentric. He rejected wealth, comfort, prestige. He lived simply, sometimes shockingly so. But beneath the provocation was a profound conviction:
Human beings are capable of virtue.
The Cynicism of ancient Greece bears little resemblance to what we call cynicism today.
The original Cynics believed that people were not fundamentally corrupt. Rather, they believed society was corrupting. Status, power, excess, social approval — these were the forces that distorted our true nature.
Strip those away, and what remains? Integrity. Self-sufficiency. Freedom.
Ancient Cynicism advocated:
Radical simplicity
Independence from social validation
Cosmopolitanism — seeing oneself as a citizen of the world
A fierce, almost defiant love for humanity
Their philosophy was a kind of social medicine. It was meant to shock people awake. To expose hypocrisy not because people were hopeless, but because they were capable of more.
Diogenes held up a lantern not to mock humanity — but to challenge it.
He searched for an honest man because he believed honesty was possible.
That distinction matters.
Over time, something shifted. The moral courage remained in the stories, but the hopeful foundation eroded. The critique survived. The love did not.
What we call cynicism today is no longer a call to authenticity. It is a reflexive distrust of motives. A settled belief that selfishness, greed, and dishonesty are simply how the world works.
Ancient Cynicism tried to remove illusions so that virtue could emerge. Modern cynicism often removes hope instead. And that is the philosophical tension we inherit.
Forward Always!
