Quotes About Idealism

In the old days I'd like to have been a politician, when I think the world was more idealistic. When I was young I did a lot of campaigning.

Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.

I would love to see everybody get a pony, don't get me wrong.

Nevertheless, I resist cynicism and continue to believe in the possibilities for genuine democracy.

I am one of those people that's never been really cynical about life, you know.

Cynicism, I contend, is the wailing of someone who believes that things are, or should be, or could be, much, much better than they are.

It has generally been assumed that of two opposing systems of philosophy, e.g., realism and idealism, one only can be true and one must be false; and so philosophers have been hopelessly divided on the question, which is the true one.

When we think back at our youth, we always remember the feeling of freedom... that you actually believe in the world. Even if it goes well for you in life, you can never attain that freedom in your imagination of what you think life could be. We are tainted.

It is inexcusable that the richest country in the world does not take care of all of its people. We don't consider ourselves idealistic; we're thoughtfully trying to make a beautiful health care model.

How do you make it to the top when all you have is ambition and talent? You believe in yourself and surround yourself with other idealistic and talented friends that fuel each other and push against the establishment to take you seriously.

The writer crafts their ideal world. In my world, everyone has really long conversations or just picks apart pop culture to death and everyone talks in monologue.

there's too many people in here. If I had my way, I'd have nothing but young chicks, the innocent ones you can teach something.

The capital error of Hegel which permeates his whole system in every part of it is that he almost altogether ignores the Outward Clash" (Peirce 1992, p. 223).

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.

The hell with reality! Let's have a whole bunch of cute little winding roads and cute little houses painted white and pink and baby blue; let's all be good consumers and have a lot of Togetherness and bring our children up in a bath of sentimentality -- and if old reality ever does pop out and say Boo we'll all get busy and pretend it never happened.

But, in the fight of his later career, what is most interesting is that when he realized that, because of the handicap of his religion, his brilliance and idealism would not take him to the top in the world of Yale, he made, within Yale, a world of his own, and a world, moreover, in which, in collegiate terms, he had power and influence.

She strives, understanding the futility of it, for perfection.

Men always failed Maman in the end. They forever fell disastrously short of whatever ideal she held them up to. What began with exuberance and passion always ended with terse accusations and hateful words, with rage and weeping fits and the flinging of cooking utensils and collapse. High drama. Maman was incapable of either starting or ending a relationship without excess.

Over the years I have felt that both the IAS and IPS have developed a kind of feudal class consciousness that does not go well with the service to the people that India needs. Their initial idealism begins to diminish within a few years of service and they gradually become part of the furniture.

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

Imagine there's no heaven... it's easy if you try.

Religion provides us with a puritanical dream, which can never be realized because it goes against human nature.

I'M A HOPELESS ROMANTIC

When you're young, everything seems like a romance. At 96, I can still feel romantic about publishing young unknown writers.