IDEALISM QUOTES II
quotations about idealism
An age deficient in idealism has ever been one of immorality and superficial attainment, since without the sense of ideas, nobility of character becomes of rare attainment, if possible.
AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT
Table Talk
Ideals are great in theory ... but they don't work too well in real life.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Narcissus in Chains
The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough.
G. K. CHESTERTON
What's Wrong with the World
Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than the basement.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
There is no special difficulty connected with being an idealist in the imagination; but to exist as an idealist is an extremely strenuous task, because existence itself constitutes a hindrance and an objection.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments
Idealism is required to reclaim our freedom, for at the end of it all, it is our freedom that gives us the possibility to more fully live our lives.
PETER BLOCK
The Answer to How Is Yes
The grounds on which idealism is advocated are generally grounds derived from the theory of knowledge, that is to say, from a discussion of the conditions which things must satisfy in order that we may be able to know them. The first serious attempt to establish idealism on such grounds was that of Bishop Berkeley. He proved first, by arguments which were largely valid, that our sense-data cannot be supposed to have an existence independent of us, but must be, in part at least, 'in' the mind, in the sense that their existence would not continue if there were no seeing or hearing or touching or smelling or tasting. So far, his contention was almost certainly valid, even if some of his arguments were not so. But he went on to argue that sense-data were the only things of whose existence our perceptions could assure us; and that to be known is to be 'in' a mind, and therefore to be mental. Hence he concluded that nothing can ever be known except what is in some mind, and that whatever is known without being in my mind must be in some other mind.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
"Idealism", The Problems of Philosophy
I'm not ready to let the youthful part of myself go yet. If maturity means becoming a cynic, if you have to kill the part of yourself that is naive and romantic and idealistic -- the part of you that you treasure most -- to claim maturity, is it not better to die young but with your humanity intact?
KENNETH CAIN
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures
Idealists are on a lifelong quest to know themselves and to express themselves authentically in the world.
SCOTT CAMPBELL
Quick Guide to the Four Temperaments and Peack Performance
The idealists give us much on which to feed, but if it were not for the utilitarians, they would starve us all.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
If ideals mean nothing ... then we are just animals.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Narcissus in Chains
Idealism is a state of innocence that has the potential to bring together our larger purpose with our day-to-day doing.
PETER BLOCK
The Answer to How Is Yes
Whether true or false, idealism is not to be dismissed as obviously absurd.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
"Idealism", The Problems of Philosophy
Idealists are the people who are focused on the big picture and on the characteristics that bring people together, not on the things that separate them.
LINDA BRANHAM
Your Emotional Boat
An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
HENRY FORD
remarks in court, July 1919
If we wish to build a skyscraper it may be necessary to pull down several old buildings. Just so it is with matters governmental, social and economic. It may be necessary to tear down and weed out a lot of old traditions that do not fit into the present time. We all know that there has been during the past 100 years the greatest advance in art, science, invention, of any period in history, but it anyone makes a specific suggestion to do something that would better the conditions of individual man, woman or society as a whole, he is called an idealist, as if that was the worst thing that could be said.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Idealism", Human Life from Many Angles
Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American.
WOODROW WILSON
address supporting the League of Nations, September 8, 1919
That glorious vision of doing good is so often the sanguine mirage of so many good minds.
CHARLES DICKENS
A Tale of Two Cities
Idealists are often seen as creative because they like to express their unique identity. They are also able to integrate things that seem to be entirely different. They look for universals and are gifted at using metaphors to bridge different perspectives.
ALICE & LISA FAIRHURST
Effective Teaching, Effective Learning
It took years of wear and tear before idealism crumbled like so much bric-a-brac.
JAMES SIEGEL
Detour