Quotes About Idealism

Youth is that period when a young boy knows everything but how to make a living.

The natural idealism of youth is an idealism, alas, for which we do not always provide as many outlets as we should.

I went in with the youthful vigor that I could single-handedly change the world. But you fast come to the realization that you're 1/435th of one-half of one-third of the government.

It is never wise to discourage youthful idealism.

I went around in my teens and early 20s thinking that life was a con trick. I had managed to grow up believing in all sorts of romantic ideas about hard work and justice and truth, and it seemed the real world was much more complicated and shaded than I wanted to believe.

When I was very young and came into politics, I basically thought ideas would do the trick.

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

One of the most startling events in my life was when my older son was about 16, and he blamed me for all the troubles of the world. So I, I felt like telling him, 'Oh no, I was just like you when I was your age; I wanted to change the world, too.'

Feminism is ridiculous. Feminists are silly idealists who want to be on top. There is no real equality in sexual relationships - someone always wins.

It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to.

I'm guilty of extraordinary naivete, I suppose. But it's a naivete that I really don't want to abandon, not even now.

There's something political about creating a world that you want to exist.

I don't think I'm delusional, but I'm definitely a dreamer; I definitely want to see the best in things and I believe in what I do.

If your children want to alter society, listen to their reasons and the idealism behind them. Don't crush them with some clever remark straight away.

Finally, the president added, 'The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic...'

Bloody idealist. We needed to walk away. Sooner or later, no matter how much you put into what you've made, you have to turn and walk away.

Can monks, even if they are free of desire, cultivate rituals designed to cater to laypersons' attachments and longings and still remain immune to corruption? Or, should questions raised about compromise in the name of a standard of incorruptible purity be set aside as the unrealistic expectations of an idealism that is not appropriate to observing Buddhism on the ground?

pipe dream." This term meant the same then as it does today, a way of describing an irrational sense of optimism. Irrational or not, this is opium's greatest gift to the smoker: boundless optimism—the kind that one rarely experiences beyond childhood. All good things seem possible; problems are easily solvable; obstacles are always surmountable.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.

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.

I started out young and idealistic, and it was all about social justice and fair distribution of resources. I didn't understand why everybody couldn't be equally prosperous.

Those of us who are today prepared to hazard our lives for the cause would regret having raised a finger, if we were able to organize only a new social system and not a more righteous one.

By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage.

I see history as really cyclical in terms of the intense idealism and the desire to create a better life outside of societal norms. In America, possibly because of whatever the American dream is, this happens over and over again. These eras repeat.