Idealist Quotes - Page 8

• Now of all the idealist abominations that make society pestiferous I doubt if there be any so mean as that of forcing self-sacrifice on a woman under the pretense that she likes it.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Mean, Sacrifice, Self

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• The battered idealist. It's just my favorite character ... To me, a hero is somebody who is able to accept the environment of the world, deal with the stuff that's thrown in their path ... and somehow keep their heart.

  Cameron Crowe

  Hero, Heart, Character

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• There's no question I am an idealist, which is another way of saying 'I am an American.'

  Ronald Reagan

  Way, Another Way

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• Idealists are not the good friends of the truths; they create their own truth.

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Good Friend

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• I've read a couple of reviews that say I'm getting harder in my old age but I don't think that's true at all. I think that you can't help but become a little cynical about life and love but I'm still a romantic, I'm still an idealist.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Couple, Life And Love, Thinking

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• I don't think the American people had a clear picture of either Nixon or me. I think they thought that Nixon was a strong, decisive, tough-minded guy and that I was an idealist and antiwar guy who might not attach enough significance to the security of the country. The truth is, I was the guy with the war record, and my opposition to Vietnam was because I was interested in the nation's well-being.

  George McGovern

  Country, Strong, War

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• The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimise themselves in favour of the ideal. But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool. ... I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.

  Agnes Martin

  Ideas, Favour, Want

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• When I see the mostly young people of Occupy Wall Street - a mixture of the bored, the nihilistic, the seekers of excitement, the left-wing true believers, the confused idealists and those hoping to engage in violence - railing against the rich capitalists on Wall Street, I get worried. Because the hatred they express toward the rich is similar to that expressed against the rich by Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. Of course, these people are not comparable to those killers. But class hatred must lead to bad things. That is why President Obama is playing with fire with his attacks on the rich.

  Dennis Prager

  Wall, Confused, Class

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• I have never been an idealist - that implies you aren't going to achieve something.

  Arthur Scargill

  Achieve, Idealism

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• Contrasting British servicemen and women with the appeasers, it is hard not to laugh. Are these two sides even the same species, let alone the same nationality? On one hand the selflessness and internationalism of the soldiers; on the other the Whites-First isolationism of the protesters. Excuse me, who are the idealists here?

  Julie Burchill

  Hands, Two Sides, Laughing

  "Don't take my name in vain" by Julie Burchill, www.theguardian.com. March 28, 2013.

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• One way of saying that is that there is an objective reality beyond our mind. A way to think of this in a philosophic sense is to look between the two great extremes: the idealist philosophy that says mind and consciousness is the only thing and that matter is simply an illusion, or a Maya, the product of mind; and the other extreme, a strict materialist determinism, which says that mind and consciousness is a secondary phenomenon of the collision of matter.

  Edgar Mitchell

  Philosophy, Thinking, Reality

  Source: www.edgemagazine.net

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• All of Robert Caro's biographies are exceptional, in part because of Caro's fundamental ambivalence about power. He sees its necessity and use for getting things done, even as he is often repelled by watching power at close range. His masterpiece on Robert Moses, The Power Broker, describes the evolution of Moses from idealist to pragmatist as he became one of the most powerful figures in the 20th century.

  Jeffrey Pfeffer

  Powerful, Use, Fundamentals

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• I say let's be idealists. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not yet see" (Hebrews 11:1).

  Shane Claiborne

  Hebrew, Certain

  "Plotting goodness together: An interview with Shane Claiborne". Interview with Jonathan Merritt, religionnews.com. May 22, 2013.

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• That's why you go into architecture - at least I did - to do things for people. I think most of us are idealists. You start out that way, anyway.

  Frank Gehry

  Thinking, People, Way

  Interview with David Sheff, www.playboy.com. March 1, 2011.

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• I'm a great believer in compromise. I know it's not popular among young idealists.

  Amos Oz

  Compromise, Young, Believer

  "'Everybody comes from somewhere.' An Interview with Writer Amos Oz". Interview with Prashanth Ramakrishna, logger.believermag.com. October 20, 2016.

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• How many people in the pews know that [ Jonathan Edwards] is both a founder of evangelicalism and, say, an idealist who denied that the material world exists?

  Oliver D. Crisp

  People, World, Founders

  Source: edwardsstudies.com

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• In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never happen actually starts to happen. And there have to be people who hold out for that, and who accept that they are idealists and that they are operating on principle as opposed to realpolitik.

  Judith Butler

  People, Principles, Facts

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• I'm still basically an idealist, which translates into getting real things done to make people's lives better.

  Charles Schumer

  Real, People, Done

  Source: www.questia.com

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• A state department official once told me this about the role of the president. He said: "We wage war for realist reasons, we justify wars for idealist reasons, and it's the president's job to balance the two." I agree.

  Michael Hastings

  War, Balance, President

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I don't think I'm an idealist. I'm a realist. And I see the progress. The progress has been remarkable. Look at the emancipation of woman in my lifetime. You're sitting here as a female. Look what's happened to the same-sex marriages. To tell somebody a man can become a woman, a woman can become a man, and a man can marry a man, they would have said, "You're crazy." But it's a reality today. So the world is changing. And you shouldn't - you know - be despairing because it's never happened before. Nothing new ever happened before.

  Benjamin B. Ferencz

  Crazy, Reality, Men

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

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• Scratch the surface of any cynic, and you will find a wounded idealist underneath. Because of previous pain or disappointment, cynics make their conclusions about life before the questions have even been asked. This means that beyond just seeing what is wrong with the world, cynics lack the courage to do something about it. The dynamic beneath cynicism is a fear of accepting responsibility.

  John Ortberg

  Pain, Disappointment, Mean

  John Ortberg (2010). “Know Doubt: The Importance of Embracing Uncertainty in Your Faith (Large Print 16pt)”, p.148, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I may be a businessman in that I set up and run companies for profit, but when I try to plan ahead and dream up new products and new companies, I'm an idealist.

  Richard Branson

  Leadership, Running, Dream

  Richard Branson (1999). “Losing my virginity: how I've survived, had fun, and made a fortune doing business my way”, Crown Business

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• Do not consider Collectivists as "sincere but deluded idealists". The proposal to enslave some men for the sake of others is not an ideal; brutality is not "idealistic," no matter what its purpose. Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Stupidity, Lust

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• I'm not an idealist anymore, I'm a bitter realist.

  Soe Hok Gie

  Bitter, Realist

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• When I say that terrorism is war against civilization, I may be met by the objection that terrorists are often idealists pursuing worthy ultimate aims -- national or regional independence, and so forth. I do not accept this argument. I cannot agree that a terrorist can ever be an idealist, or that the objects sought can ever justify terrorism. The impact of terrorism, not merely on individual nations, but on humanity as a whole, is intrinsically evil, necessarily evil and wholly evil.

  Benjamin Netanyahu

  War, Impact, Civilization

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