Quotes About Ideals

Let's face it, us '60s folks had pretty high expectations.

It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness. Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that the party was trying to achieve.

I do not think the Socialist need make any sacrifice of essentials, but certainly he will have to make a great sacrifice of externals. It would help enormously, for instance, if the smell of crankishness which still clings to the Socialist movement could be dispelled. If only the sandals and the pistachio-coloured shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaller and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercises quietly!

Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom.

Twenty or twenty-five years ago, contraception and enlightenment were held to be almost synonymous.

Una revolución comienza con una amplia difusión de ideas de libertad, igualdad, etc. Después viene el crecimiento de una oligarquía que está tan interesada en aferrarse a sus privilegios como lo está cualquier otra clase dominante. Tal oligarquía necesariamente será hostil a revoluciones en otros lugares, las cuales inevitablemente despiertan de nuevo las ideas de libertad e igualdad.

A Winston le sorprendía que lo más característico de la vida moderna no fuera su crueldad ni su inseguridad, sino sencillamente su vaciedad, su absoluta falta de contenido. La vida no se parecía, no sólo a las mentiras lanzadas por las telepantallas, sino ni siquiera a los ideales que el Partido trataba de lograr.

L'idéal de l'amour est certainement la fidélité éternelle. Les lois morales et religieuses ont voulu consacrer cet idéal; les faits matériels le troublent, les loi civiles sont faites de maniére à le rendre souvent impossible ou illusoire.

For her, finally, the literary art is an instrument of social salvation—it is her means of touching the world with her ideals, her love, her aspiration; for him the literary art is the avenue of escape from the meaningless chaos of existence—it is his subtly critical condemnation of the world.

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.

We are, in the main, 'word-blind' to Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent verse. This blindness results from a major change in habits of sensibility. Our contemporary sense of the poetic, our often unexamined presumptions about valid or spurious uses of figurative speech have developed from a conscious negation of fin de siécle ideals.

Ambiciones irritantemente desproporcionadas, proyectos nobles, ideales resplandecientes se convierten en catástrofe: el socialismo mesiánico engendra el gulag.

voters base their decisions on values as much as any other factor.

China's experience reminded me of the French and Russian revolutions. The pattern was the same: People seized control by promising to promote certain ideals. Once they had consolidated power, they abused it, casting aside their beliefs and brutalizing their fellow citizens. It was as if mankind had a sickness that it kept inflicting on itself.

From his earliest days, George Bush was a man who valued courage, loyalty, and service. Those were the traits that his mother and father had instilled in him. And the United States of America, especially its citizens in uniform, embodied those ideals. That was the country that Dad risked everything to defend.

The Deep South has a completely different history, both good and bad, that is fascinating for everybody. It makes people work together who usually don't, and that sounds like a cliche in so many ways, but it actually happened... and it happened because of a beautiful idea.

I was in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas. I've argued for Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, the United Farm Workers. I've been a radical for a long time. I guess it's too bad. I'd be more marketable as a right-wing redneck. But I got into this to tell the truth as I saw it.

Like Moscow, I wish to lay the foundation of the Chinese Republic deeply in the minds of the young generation - the workers of tomorrow.

True idealists are rare; they are the dedicated workers, who would, if need be, die at the stake.

We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.

There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.

There's some basic ideals that we should be able to agree on as Americans: We don't tolerate violence on our streets.

While I gave up God a long time ago, I never shook the habit of wanting to believe in something. So I replaced my creed of everlasting life with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The downfall of the industry seems to actually be good for art. I think the industry will find their way once the focus shifts from its greed-based origins, downsizes, and begins to support creative visions that speak to our times and shifting ideals.