An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, whereas a pessimist sees only the shadows. An idealist, however, is one who sees the light and the shadows, but in addition sees something else: the possibility of changing the picture, of making the lights prevail over the shadows.
—Felix Adler (1851–1933) German-Born American Philosopher
When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
I’m an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.
—Caroline Schoeder American Aphorist
Ideals are the world’s masters.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
A perfect human being: Man in search of his ideal of perfection. Nothing less.
—Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916–2004) British Sufi Mystic, Religious Leader, Psychologist
Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Every dogma has its day, but ideals are eternal.
—Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) English Playwright, Novelist, Zionist Activist
she stood up by sitting down. I’m only standing here because of her.
—Rosa Parks (1913–2005) American Civil Rights Leader
We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
All human things do require to have an ideal in them; to have some soul in them.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
Our ideals are our better selves.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
I recognize thart even you, yourself, will change. Your ideals will change, your tastes will change, your desires will change. Your whole understandings of who you are had better change, because if it doesn’t change, you’ve become a very static personality over a great many years, and nothing would displease me more. And so I recognize that the process of evolution will produce changes in you.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
An idealist believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
We have a system which, though far from perfect, is strong with idealism. It gives elbow room for men of all races and all beliefs. It is vital and dynamic. And it works. We have the means of shaping the world in our pattern. If we do, freedom will be assured for all men. The decision is in the hands of this generation. It is a challenge to our political competence. For western civilization it is the greatest challenge of all time.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Judge
We for a certainty are not the first have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed whatever brute and blackguard made the world.
—A. E. Housman (1859–1936) English Poet, Classical Scholar
Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Let us show, not merely in great crises, but in every day affairs of life, qualities of practical intelligence, of hardihood and endurance, and above all, the power of devotion to a lofty ideal.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Don’t part company with your ideals. They are anchors in a storm.
—Arnold Glasow (1905–98) American Businessman
Success is the satisfaction of feeling that one is realizing one’s ideal.
—Anna Pavlova (1881–1931) Russian Dancer
The idealist’s program of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never be successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
A large portion of human beings live not so much in themselves as in what they desire to be. — They create an ideal character the perfections of which compensate in some degree for imperfections of their own.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
Heads are wisest when they are cool, and hearts are strongest when they beat in response to noble ideals.
—Ralph Bunche (1903–71) American Political Scientist, Diplomat
It’s time for greatness — not for greed. It’s a time for idealism — not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Civil Regrets Advocate, Humanitarian, Lawyer
Living up to ideals is like doing everyday work with your Sunday clothes on.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of the circumstances.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
What we need most, is not so much to realize the ideal as to idealize the real.
—Frederic Henry Hedge
I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
I promise to keep on living as though I expected to live forever. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
From my experience, not one in twenty marries the first love; we build statues of snow, and weep to see them melt.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Life without idealism is empty indeed. We just hope or starve to death.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet, I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals—that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
The image is made to order, tailored to us. An ideal, on the hand, has a claim on us. It does not serve us, we serve it. If we have trouble striding toward it, we assume the matter is with us, and not the ideal.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Idealism springs from deep feelings, but feelings are nothing without the formulated idea that keeps them whole.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality the cost becomes prohibitive.
—William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925–2008) American TV Personality, Author
A Realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned.
—Warren W. Wiersbe (1929–2019) American Pastor, Biblical Scholar
The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals.
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American Civil Rights Leader
Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.
—Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959) American Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter, Actor
Saddle your dreams before you ride em.
—Mary Webb (1881–1927) English Novelist, Poet, Writer
The idealist walks on tiptoe, the materialist on his heels.
—Malcolm de Chazal (1902–81) Mauritian Writer, Painter, Visionary
When they come downstairs from their Ivory Towers, idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.
—John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English Novelist, Playwright
To live and let live, without clamor for distinction or recognition; to wait on divine Love; to write truth first on the tablet of one’s own heart–this is the sanity and perfection of living, and my human ideal.
—Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) American Christian Science Religious Leader, Humanitarian, Writer
The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist