Idealist Quotes - Page 4

• The great German idealists from Kant to Hegel saw this idealism or nihilism as a reductio ad absurdum of any philosophy, and so they struggled by all conceptual means to avoid it.

  Frederick C. Beiser

  Philosophy, Mean, Nihilism

  "Diotima’s child". Interview with Richard Marshall, www.3ammagazine.com. September 21, 2012.

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• On the silver screen, capitalists are usually vilified as greedy and heartless, while statists of every stripe are depicted as selfless, romantic idealists who only want to help people.

  Lawrence Reed

  People, Heartless, Stripes

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• It isn't a circle--it is simply a long line--as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end--we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd by those who see the changes--who dream, who will not give up--are called idealists...and those who see only the circle we call them the "realists"!

  Lorraine Hansberry

  Dream, Giving Up, Circles

  Lorraine Hansberry (2011). “A Raisin in the Sun”, p.116, Vintage

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• The universalists, the idealists, the Utopians all aim too high. They give promises of an unattainable paradise, and by doing so they deceive mankind. Whatever label they wear, whether they call themselves Christians, Communists, humanitarians, whether they are merely sincere but stupid or wire-pullers and cynics, they are all makers of slaves. I myself have always kept my eye fixed on a paradise which, in the nature of things, lies well within our reach. I mean an improvement in the lot of the German people. (21st February 1945)

  Adolf Hitler

  Christian, Lying, Stupid

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• War in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics.

  Chris Hedges

  Peace, Betrayal, War

  Chris Hedges (2005). “Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America”, p.96, Simon and Schuster

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• ...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real progress, and the freedom that makes progress possible, lies in unification. For where unification has been able to establish unity of ideas it has usually ended in uniformity, paralysing the growth of new ideas. And where the unification has merely brought about an artificial or imposed unity, its irksomeness has led through discord to disruption.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Real, Lying, Ideas

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.76, Lulu Press, Inc

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• There are no idealists in the plant world and no compassion. The rose and the morning glory know no mercy. Bindweed, the morning glory, will quickly choke its competitors to death, and the fencerow rose will just as quietly crowd out any other plant that tried to share its roothold. Idealism and mercy are human terms and human concepts.

  Hal Borland

  Morning, Nature, Compassion

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• The strong man holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites. The idealists are not usually realistic, and the realists are not usually idealistic. The militant are not generally known to be passive, nor the passive to be militant. Seldom are the humble self-assertive, or the self-assertive humble. But life at it's best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Strong, Humble, Men

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• Among idealists and visionaries, there is no shortage of good intent, but there's often a shortage of discipline.

  Scott Belsky

  Business, Discipline, Visionaries

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• What's the truth? The truth is what people WANT. Liars are basically idealists, liars are saints and prophets. Jesus was a liar.

  Jane Rogers

  Jesus, Liars, People

  Jane Rogers (2001). “Island”, p.30, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I could safely declare, I am an idealist... I believe in everything - I am only looking for proofs.

  Carl Sandburg

  Believe, Proof, I Believe

  "Incidentals". Book by Carl Sandburg, 1904.

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• . . . idealism is one of the greatest forces in the world. It makes seeming impossibilities possible and succeeds where prudence fails. But unless the idealist is brave and has the courage to face the truth, his idealism creates nothing.

  Grenville Kleiser

  Courage, Truth, Bravery

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• Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation. . . . The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct . . . it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base.

  M. Scott Peck

  Believe, People, Essentials

  M. Scott Peck (1983). “People of the Lie”, p.247, Simon and Schuster

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• The reason why we believe that change is possible is not because we are idealists but because we believe we have made it, so other people can make it as well.

  Roméo Dallaire

  Believe, People, Reason Why

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• Don't make me into this airy-fairy, moralist, idealist because I'm not.

  Madeleine Albright

  Fairy, Airy, Moralist

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• I am an idealist. I often feel I would like to be an artist in an ivory tower. Yet it is imperative that I speak to people, so I must desert that ivory tower. To do this, I am a journalist - a photojournalist. But I am always torn between the attitude of the journalist, who is a recorder of facts, and the artist, who is often necessarily at odds with the facts. My principle concern is for honesty, above all honesty with myself.

  W. Eugene Smith

  Honesty, Attitude, Artist

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• Idealists, workers of thought, unite to show how inspiration and genius walk in step with the progress of the machine, of aircraft, of industry, of trade, of the sciences, of electricity.

  Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

  Inspiration, Progress, Genius

  "Futurism". Book edited by Didier Ottinger, p. 78, 2008.

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• I am an absurd idealist. But I believe that all that must come true. For, unless it comes true, the world will be laid desolate. And I believe that it can come true.

  Leslie Charteris

  Laughter, Believe, Fighting

  "The Last Hero".

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• Cynic: an idealist whose rose-colored glasses have been removed, snapped in two and stomped into the ground, immediately improving his vision

  Rick Bayan

  Glasses, Two, Rose

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

  Bob Woodward

  People, Leader, President

  Bob Woodward (2010). “Obama's Wars”, p.307, Simon and Schuster

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• If anarchists are idealists, they may simply be likened to someone who finds himself swimming in a cesspool and, rather than paddling about looking for the area with the least amount of floating faeces, seeks to climb out of the pool completely.

  Robert Higgs

  Swimming, Floating, Paddling

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• All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can - and must - be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly - and no doubt will keep trying.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Children, Luxury, Perfect

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.225, Penguin

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• Three qualities of greatness stood out in Woodrow Wilson. He was a man of staunch morals. He was more than just an idealist; he was the personification of the heritage of idealism of the American people. He brought spiritual concepts to the peace table. He was a born crusader.

  Herbert Hoover

  Spiritual, Greatness, Men

  Herbert Hoover (1992). “The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson”, p.27, Woodrow Wilson Center Press

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• That which we remember is, more often than not, that which we would like to have been; or that which we hope to be. Thus our memory and our identity are ever at odds; our history ever a tale told by inattentive idealists.

  Ralph Ellison

  Memories, Odds, Identity

  Ralph Ellison (2011). “The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison: Revised and Updated”, p.237, Modern Library

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

  Mary McCarthy

  Real, Silly, Winning

  Source: therumpus.net

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