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Quotations about Ideals
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The shortest way to realize the ideal
Is to idealize the real.
~Simeon Carter (1824–1911), Poems and Aphorisms: A Woodman's Musings, 1893
Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you reach your destiny. ~Carl Schurz
It's a cruel world: idealistic dreams usually end up costing as much as regular stupidity. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
The soul mounts ever toward nobler things, but seldom is it strong enough to carry along with it the human clay. ~Bernard G. Richard, "Life and the Theories of Life," To‑Morrow, June 1905
When a man forgets his ideals he may hope for happiness, but not till then. ~John Oliver Hobbes
Ideals are absolutes — they are like round holes of perfection into which the square, rough-hewn pegs of reality can never be successfully fitted. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
Some people never have anything except ideals. ~E.W. Howe
When the wings of idealism break, may you land safely on your feet. ~Terri Guillemets, "Age fall," 2009
Ideals are often like the sirens of mythology — a seductively attractive lure to shipwreck. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong. ~G.K. Chesterton
Mankind aspires to a perfection not permitted by his genetic legacy — nor by the competitive necessities of his circumstance. He is condemned to endless aspiration — a persistent purgatory of failed ideals. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. ~Norman Douglas, South Wind
Idealism — so often the blind nursemaid to folly. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
Our ideals, like the gods of old, are constantly demanding human sacrifices. ~George Bernard Shaw
We have our ideals now, but when they are mentioned we feel self-conscious and uncomfortable, like a school-boy caught praying. ~Arnold Bennett (1867–1931)
Idealism is absolutism. The pristine version is toxic, and often fatal; to be beneficial, it requires the dilution of balance, and the filter of common sense. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem. ~John Galsworthy
Materialism is a circumference without a centre. Idealism is a centre without a circumference. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
The ideal is the enemy of the possible. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows. ~David T. Wolf, as quoted by Robert Byrne, in The Third — and Possibly the Best — 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1986
Man's idealistic reach often exceeds the reasonable capabilities of his grasp; in this disparity lie the seeds of misery. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
Though I believe in liberalism, I find it difficult to believe in liberals. ~G.K. Chesterton
In the absence of ideal men the market for real men continues active. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1903, George Horace Lorimer, editor
IDEALIST. One who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup. ~H. L. Mencken, A Book of Burlesques, 1920
The steed of idealism should never be given free rein — it invariably heads directly towards the abyss. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com
We are accused, furthermore, of having ideals. Well, every dogma has its day, but ideals are eternal. ~Israel Zangwill, speech, 1892 November 13th
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