Quotes About Idealism

Romantic heroes and heroines are a bit different from the sort of people we run into every day.

There was no boss-class, no menial-class, no beggars, no prostitutes, no lawyers, no priests, no boot-licking, no cap-touching.

Nearly all creators of utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache... whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.

All favourable Utopias seem to be alike in postulating perfection while being unable to suggest happiness.

Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache.

Perhaps you were too idealistic. I admit it. But I don't believe I overestimate the importance of ideals. Only when people believe in something can they move the world. The trouble is that people simply don't believe in open society as a goal worth fighting for.

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. John Adams, U.S. President

I recognize the person that wanted to help people, working hard - naively maybe - to make the world a better place. But I don't recognize the person who was drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid.

Architecture has always been a very idealistic profession. It's about making the world a better place, and it works over the generations because people go on vacation and they look for it.

Sentimentality works by our seeing only what we want to see.

I see the world in black and white, and I don't like compromising.

Idealists foolish enough to throw caution to the winds have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.

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.

I am just tired of writing about heroes that we're dragging down to our level, and I want to write about heroes that we want to be.

I am an idealist, which can be tiring.

I think it's realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: 'I despair. The world's no good.' That's a perverse idealist. It's practical to hope, because the hope is for us to survive as a human species. That's very realistic.

Maybe we were being a bit unrealistic, but we had this hope that if we could just get into the Ivy League, everything would be set. We dreamed of Gothic libraries and leafy green quads and romantic dorms with fireplaces and guys who were not only cute but also smart and charming, and, quite possibly, British. In college, we believed, we'd finally find our people.

Oh my dear, idealists are the cruelest monsters of them all.

Any idealist who tries to join the Peace Corps must realize he is not going to change the world overnight.

mold—William Henry Yale also subscribed to Roosevelt's notions of the ideal American man and of the dangers of "over-civilization," code for effeminacy. The true man, in this worldview, was a rugged individualist, physically fit as well as intellectually cultured, as equally at home leading men into battle or shooting big game on the prairie as chatting with the ladies in the salon.

Youth is the time when hearts are large, And stirring wars Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn To the blade it draws.

In some ways, the challenge of staying political is to stay a dreamer at the same time.

If a young person has any idealism at all, it's strongest about the time he finishes college.

The doctor's job was to shut up long enough to let the patient be the most important person in the room, because she was. There was an unforced and absolutely real respect for people just because they were people. And we, as doctors, were their servants. For all the things that felt wrong, that felt right. If you weren't an idealist, why would you go to medical school?