Quotes About Idealism

Years ago, when he was around fourteen, he'd been all hipped on the idea of going to India. He read books about people sitting on rocks, naked, in all kinds of weather, but mostly bad, naturally, and walking barefoot through hot coals and arriving at wisdom. I used to say that it sounded to me as though they were getting away from wisdom as fast as they could. I think he sort of looked down on me for that.

After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus.

When even the bartenders lose their romantic notions, it's time for a better world.

On the evening of November 1, at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Eisenhower addressed the tensions in the Mediterranean by letting fly a salvo of antitribal idealism, declaring, "We cannot and will not condone armed aggression—no matter who the attacker, and no matter who the victim. We cannot—in the world, any more than in our own nation—subscribe to one law for the weak, another law for the strong; one law of those opposing us, another for those allied with us.

Hippy people had a hopeful idea of what they wanted the world to be like, then most of them changed into corporate Yuppies. But I still have that hippy thing underneath somewhere.

At the very beginning of my creative life I loved humanity. I wanted to do something good for mankind. Soon I understood that it isn't possible to save mankind.

I've never understood the division between so-called realists and so-called idealists.

An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.

He 's ruthless only because of his ideals. Unfortunately he doesn't succeed. The thing fails and gets out of hand and takes charge of him. Idealism is the only excuse he could have and it's a great excuse.

Perfectionists talk about first love. Realists talk about true love. Optimists talk just about love.

A lot of the idealism of the Sixties was spot on, from the environmentalism to the war to the Civil Rights movement, the women's rights movement, you name it.

Idealism springs from deep feelings, but feelings are nothing without the formulated idea that keeps them whole.

America is exceptional in combining standard great-power realism with extravagant idealism about the country's redemptive role in creating international order.

You need to have good people: honourable, capable, committed in politics, standing in public office. It's not a guarantee, but it's the ideal we have to aim for.

My advice to a young man seeking deathless fame would be to espouse an unpopular cause and devote his life to it.

To be upright and to have an imagination: that is enough to be a very good young man.

The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love.

Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal.

The man who is not a socialist at twenty has no heart, but if he is still a socialist at forty he has no head.

All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.

I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.

The immature man wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mature man wants to live humanely for one

Revolution is the industry of young men.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.