Naïveté and cynicism mark the failure to achieve innocence.
We are born naive, but we can grow into innocence, which is something to be achieved.
With courage we may gain enough acquaintance with real life to make choices that foster our innocence while avoiding naïveté or cynicism.
Innocence, won only after years of struggle toward a deeply ethical life in a culture torn between naive ideals and cynical behavior, allows one to accept one’s self absolutely for past ignorance and stupidity and to breathe…

pp. 17-19, Thomas Moore, Original Self