idealism quotes

You may never get to that perfect world that you’re waiting for where everything’s going to be perfect and you got that much money and your house paid off.

Wishful thinking is not idealism. It is self-indulgence at best and self-exaltation at worst. In either case, it is usually at the expense of others. In other words, it is the opposite of idealism.

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word experience have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word.

Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.

Really, I have to laugh because there was a whole set of stories that made me sound like the Dragon Lady, you know, ‚tough this and tough that.‘ Then there is this business about ‚gooey.‘ The bottom line is I am a pragmatic idealist.

I have always seen the United States as a force of good. And I have learned that there is the idealistic part about what we can do at the U.N. and there is a doable part. And I have learned what is more doable.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

In retrospect, I do think it’s fair to say that we were overly idealistic and focused on more of the good parts of what connecting people and giving people a voice can bring.

I think in the ’70s that there was a general feeling of chaos, a feeling that the idea of the ’60s as ‚ideal‘ was a misnomer. Nothing seemed ideal anymore. Everything seemed in-between.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.

All that we call ideal in Greek or any other art, because to us it is false and visionary, was, to the makers of it, true and existent.

We talk about this concept of openness and transparency as the high-level ideal that we’re moving towards at Facebook. The way that we get there is by empowering people to share and connect. The combination of those two things leads the world to become more open.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.

Everybody is idealistic when you’re a kid.

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

It’s a lot easier to stay idealistic if you don’t sign two to five next-of-kin letters every day.

The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.

What we need is a system of thought – you might even call it a religion – that can bind humans together. A system that would fit the Republic of Chad as well as the United States: a system that would supply our idealistic young people with something to believe in.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.