He's a wretched fellow to talk to--a regular cynic.

He doesn't seem to believe in anything." "That's another sort of joke," said the person accused of cynicism.
"It's because his health is so poor," his father explained to Lord Warburton.

"It affects his mind and colours his way of looking at things; he seems to feel as if he had never had a chance.

But it's almost entirely theoretical, you know; it doesn't seem to affect his spirits.

I've hardly ever seen him when he wasn't cheerful--about as he is at present.