Explore a collection of the most beloved and motivational quotes and sayings about Idealists. Share these powerful messages with your loved ones on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or on your personal blog, and inspire the world with their wisdom. We've compiled the Top 100 Idealists Quotes and Sayings from 89 influential authors, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,Robert Higgs,Charles Horton Cooley,Albert Camus,Susan Block, for you to enjoy and share.

Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal. By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Born Act Man Idealist Worth

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. By Robert Higgs Idealists Faeces Seeks Completely Anarchists

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. By Charles Horton Cooley Absurd Impracticable Demonstrably Ridiculous Case

The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love. By Albert Camus Love Opposite Idealist Man

The ideal is the enemy of the real. By Susan Block Real Ideal Enemy

I am an idealist, which can be tiring. By Hussein Chalayan Idealist Tiring

Ideals are an imaginative understanding of that which is desirable in that which is possible. By Walter Lippmann Ideals Imaginative Understanding Desirable

There is a possessiveness in the idealist's attitude . . . . "You are to be like me. I will shape you, or hammer you, into the shape of my ideal. You must enjoy my pleasures. Your tastes must coincide with mind. You must have only my values. You must be restricted by my limitations By Caryll Houselander Attitude Possessiveness Idealist Shape Ideal

We are all born idealists, until life fucks us all. By M.f. Moonzajer Idealists Born Life Fucks

Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them. By Carl Schurz Ideals Stars Sea Reach Mariners

I am a mixture of idealist and realist. By Roger Moore Realist Mixture Idealist

How easy human frailties could thrive under the cover of idealism By Hermann Hesse Idealism Easy Human Frailties Thrive

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. I believe that, by the grace of God, men will awake presently and be men again, and colour and laughter and splendid living will return to a grey civilisation. But that will only come true because a few men will believe in it, and fight for it, and fight in its name against everything that sneers and snarls at that ideal. By Leslie Charteris True Idealist Men Absurd Fight

Idealism, however impractical, gives a meaning to our existence. By Anirban Bose Idealism Impractical Existence Meaning

I'm an idealist without illusions. By John F. Kennedy Illusions Idealist

Centuries and centuries of idealism have not failed to influence reality By Jorge Luis Borges Reality Centuries Idealism Failed Influence

Idealism is the highest form of reason. By John Charles Polanyi Idealism Reason Highest Form

It is always easy to divide the world into idealists and power-oriented people. The idealists are presumed to be the noble people, and the power-oriented people are the ones that cause all the world's trouble. By Henry A. Kissinger People World Poweroriented Idealists Easy

Sometimes, the only realists are the dreamers. By Paul Wellstone Dreamers Realists

It is very important that you express your idealism actively, to what ever extent you can, for this increases your sense of worth and power ... By Seth Actively Power Important Express Idealism

Earlier I had thought a lot about why it was so extremely unusual for a person to be able to live for an ideal. Now I saw that many people, all in fact, are capable of dying for an ideal. Only, it mustn't be a personal, freely chosen ideal, but one held in common and taken over from other people. By Hermann Hesse Ideal Earlier People Thought Lot

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. By George Carlin Inside Person Idealist Cynical Disappointed

An idealist believes that 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 By David Allen Run Short Count Long Idealist

Idealism is guilty middle-class bullshit. By Eric Bogosian Idealism Bullshit Guilty Middleclass

All men who have ideals ... live by some kind of faith, by committing themselves to some kind of loyalty which is not universally recognized as the common property of all thinking men. They must have something-something outside themselves, to make them feel life is worth living, that good rather than evil is the explanation of the world. By Ronald Knox Ideals Kind Men Live Faith

Idealism is like a castle in the air if it is not based on a solid foundation of social and political realism. By Claude Mckay Idealism Realism Castle Air Based

The true idealist pursues what his heart says is right in a way that his head says will work. By Richard M. Nixon Work True Idealist Pursues Heart

Without idealism, politics is reduced to a form of social accounting, the day-to-day administration of men and things. This too is something that a conservative can survive well enough. But for the Left it is a catastrophe. By Tony Judt Idealism Politics Accounting Administration Things

Children see things very well sometimes - and idealists even better. By Lorraine Hansberry Children Things Idealists

Now people can generally be classified into two groups: the mediocre realists and the mediocre dreamers. By Haruki Murakami Mediocre Groups Dreamers People Generally

Idealism without realism is impotent. Realism without idealism is immoral. By Richard M. Nixon Impotent Idealism Realism Immoral

Some people never have anything except ideals. By E.w. Howe Ideals People

Honor to the idealists, whether philosophers or poets. They have improved us by mingling with our daily pursuits great and transcendent conceptions. They have thrown around our sensual life the grandeur of a better, and drawn us up from contacts with the temporal and the selfish to communion with beauty and truth and goodness. By Edwin Hubbel Chapin Honor Idealists Poets Philosophers Conceptions

Intellects whose desires have outstripped their understanding. By Friedrich August Von Hayek Intellects Understanding Desires Outstripped

I'm not an idealist anymore, I'm a bitter realist. By Soe Hok Gie Anymore Realist Idealist Bitter

The ideal is the only absolute real; and it must become the real in the individual life as well, however impossible they may count it who never tried it. By George Macdonald Real Ideal Absolute Individual Life

Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist. By George Carlin Scratch Idealist Cynic Find Disappointed

The idealist regards facts as provisional. By Mason Cooley Provisional Idealist Facts

I prefer truth-based entertaining idealism. By Toba Beta Idealism Prefer Truthbased Entertaining

The Platonic idealist is the man by nature so wedded to perfection that he sees in everything not the reality but the faultless ideal which the reality misses and suggests. By George Santayana Reality Platonic Suggests Idealist Man

Scratch a cynic and you'll find a disappointed idealist. By Jon F. Merz Scratch Idealist Cynic Find Disappointed

Anyone too undisciplined, too self-righteous or too self-centered to live in the world as it is has a tendency to idealize a world which ought to be. But no matter what political or religious direction such idealists choose, their visions always share one telling characteristic: in their utopias, heavens or brave new worlds, their greatest personal weakness suddenly appears to be a strength. By David James Duncan Undisciplined Selfrighteous Selfcentered Live Tendency

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. By Sydney J. Harris Run Count Short Long Idealist

The true ideal is not opposed to the real but lies in it; and blessed are the eyes that find it. By James Russell Lowell True Ideal Opposed Real Lies

Whoever does not know how to find the way to his ideal lives more frivolously and impudently than the man without an ideal. By Friedrich Nietzsche Ideal Find Lives Frivolously Impudently

Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist - someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations. By Peter M. Senge Scratch Idealist Expectations Surface Cynics

Success is achieved by people who deeply understand reality and know how to use it to get what they want. The converse is also true: idealists who are not well-grounded in reality create problems, not progress. By Ray Dalio Success Reality Achieved People Deeply

I have never been an idealist - that implies you aren't going to achieve something. By Arthur Scargill Idealist Implies Achieve

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power. By Bertrand Russell Power Disguised Passes Idealism Hatred

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power. By Aldous Huxley Idealism Power Noble Toga Political

The mass of mankind is divided into two classes, the Sancho Panzas who have a sense for reality, but no ideals, and the Don Quixotes with a sense for ideals, but mad. By George Santayana Sense Ideals Sancho Panzas Don

Idealism misconstrues agency, implying the capacity to bring about influence where that capacity may not exist or where it may only be weak. By James Davison Hunter Idealism Agency Implying Weak Capacity

It wasn't idealism that made me, from the beginning, want a more secure and rational society. It was an intellectual judgment, to which I still hold. When I was young its name was socialism. We can be deflected by names. But the need was absolute, and is still absolute. By Raymond Williams Beginning Society Idealism Made Secure

An idealist. The most dangerous kind of man there was. And By James S.a. Corey Idealist Dangerous Kind Man

An idealist is ahead of his time only in the sense that he is articulate. The same is true of a nation. For even primitive people, even effete races have a message for those above or below them. The heritage of the Ideal, however small can not be exhausted. By Ameen Rihani Articulate Idealist Ahead Time Sense

Idealism does not represent a superfluous expression of emotion, but in truth it has been, is, and will be, the premise for what we designate as human culture ... Without his idealistic attitude all, even the most dazzling faculties of the intellect, would remain mere intellect just like outward appearance without inner value, and never creative force ... The purest idealism is unconsciously equivalent to the deepest knowledge ... By Adolf Hitler Emotion Culture Represent Superfluous Expression

The enemy of idealism is zealotry. By Neil Kinnock Zealotry Enemy Idealism

A large portion of human beings live not so much in themselves as in what they desire to be. They create what is called an ideal character, in an ideal form, whose perfections compensate in some degree for the imperfections of their own. By Edwin Percy Whipple Large Portion Human Live Desire

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world. By Woodrow Wilson Idealist People Call American America

Ideals are great as long as they don't get in the way of what we want to do. By Lawrence Fagg Ideals Great Long

Idealism sees the world in God. It beholds the whole circle of persons and things, of actions and events, of country and religion,not as painfully accumulated, atom after atom, act after act, in an aged creeping Past, but as one vast picture, which God paints on the instant eternity, for the contemplation of the soul. By Ralph Waldo Emerson God Idealism World Past Atom

There is no realism without an element of idealism. By Henry A. Kissinger Idealism Realism Element

If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough - you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal. By Richard Stallman World Idealism Goal Accomplish Choose

An ideal is merely the projection, on an enormously enlarged scale, of some aspect of personality. By Aldous Huxley Projection Scale Personality Ideal Enormously

My idealism is clearly one reason I'm an artist. I see art as one of mankind's more sublime acts, as a vital counterbalance to our base impulses . By Richard Schmid Artist Idealism Reason Acts Impulses

Ideas first and last: yet it is not till these are formulated and utilized that the devotees of the common sense discern their value and advantages. The idealist is the capitalist on whose resources multitudes are maintained life long. Ideas in the head set hands about their several tasks, thus carrying forward all human endeavors to their issues. By Amos Bronson Alcott Advantages Ideas Till Formulated Utilized

The difference between an idealist and a fanatic is the idealist is only 90% sure he's right. By Jim Payne Idealist Difference Fanatic

People who have never had an ideal may hope to find one; they are in a better state than the people who allow the circumstances of life to break their ideal. To fall beneath one's ideal is to lose one's track in life; then confusion rises in the mind, and that light which one should hold high becomes covered and obscured, so that it cannot shine out to light one's path. By Hazrat Inayat Khan People Ideal Life Hope Find

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. By Warren W. Wiersbe Idealist Fire Purified Realist Burned

The idealists will always be in society, and we will survive. By John Zorn Society Survive Idealists

Idealistic reformers are dangerous because their idealism has no roots in love, but is simply a hysterical and unbalanced rage for order amidst their own chaos. By William Irwin Thompson Idealistic Love Chaos Reformers Dangerous

You see in such a world as this, an idealist -or perhaps it's only a sentimentalist-must be stoned to death. He makes the others so uncomfortable. He haunts them at their golf. By Ford Madox Ford Idealist Death World Sentimentalistmust Stoned

The idealist walks on tiptoe, the materialist on his heels. By Malcolm De Chazal Tiptoe Heels Idealist Walks Materialist

The idealist hopes. The romantic sees doom. The postmodernist sees doom and hopes. By Bauvard Hopes Idealist Doom Romantic Postmodernist

A realist is a slave to reality. By Mokokoma Mokhonoana Reality Realist Slave

The lie of the ideal has till now been the curse on reality; on its account humanity itself has become fake and false right down to its deepest instincts - to the point of worshipping values opposite to the only ones which would guarantee it a flourishing, a future, the exaled right to a future. By Friedrich Nietzsche Future Reality Instincts Flourishing Lie

It is the cruelest of all ironies that moderns imagine themselves to be (abstractly understood) "individuals," because in actuality moderns are "types," abstracted and self-abstractive victims of a process of stereotyping that afflicts even would-be rebels and anarchists. By Kenny Smith Individuals Types Moderns Abstractly Understood

Thus, as I have already observed, materialism starts from animality to establish humanity; idealism starts from divinity to establish slavery and condemn the masses to an endless animality. Materialism denies free will and ends in the establishment of liberty; idealism, in the name of human dignity, proclaims free will, and on the ruins of every liberty founds authority. Materialism rejects the principle of authority, because it rightly considers it as the corollary of animality, and because, on the contrary, the triumph of humanity, the object and chief significance of history, can be realised only through liberty. In a word, you will always find the idealists in the very act of practical materialism, while you will see the materialists pursuing and realising the most grandly ideal aspirations and thoughts. By Mikhail Bakunin Starts Establish Materialism Idealism Animality

An ethical idealist, a person whom embraces the honorable philosophy of ethical idealism, performs acts that are honest, pure, and righteous regardless of their fearfulness. By Kilroy J. Oldster Pure Idealist Idealism Performs Honest

It is not enough to have ideals. We must translate them into action. We must clear our own little corner of creation. By Toyohiko Kagawa Ideals Action Creation Translate Clear

Idealism leads to realism if it is strictly thought out. By Ludwig Wittgenstein Idealism Leads Realism Strictly Thought

When I was younger, I was somewhat of an idealist. I guess I'm a little bit more of a realist now. I think there's a lot that can be done to make the world a better place, but it's more about choosing your battles. By Conor Oberst Younger Idealist Guess Bit Realist

It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals. By Bertrand Russell Ideals Fate Idealists Obtain Struggled

My work is aimed at creating a world in which I wish to live. Consequently, it is about creating ideals with the aid of realistic techniques. My most fundamental motivation is a desire for unity, fusion and sense of community. By Wolfgang Tillmans Live Creating Work Aimed World

Idealism saith: matter is a phenomenon, not a substance. Idealism acquaints us with the total disparity between the evidence of our own being, and the evidence of the world's being. The one is perfect; the other, incapable of any assurance; the mind is a part of the nature of things; the world is a divine dream, from which we may presently awake to the glories and certainties of day. Idealism is a hypothesis to account for nature by other principles than those of carpentry and chemistry. Yet, By Ralph Waldo Emerson Idealism Saith Matter Phenomenon Substance

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. By Victor Hugo Ideal Real Human Soul Greater

I always want to tell these young idealists that the world is not as dangerous as many in the older generation want them to believe ... The [people] for whom I feel the greatest sadness are the ones who choke on their beliefs, who never act on their ideals, who never know the state of struggle in a decent cause, and never know the thrill of even partial victories. By Jonathan Kozol Young Idealists World Dangerous Older

It's easy to be a naive idealist. It's easy to be a cynical realist. It's quite another thing to have no illusions and still hold the inner flame. By Marie-Louise Von Franz Easy Idealist Naive Realist Flame

In any case, ideals are something we strive for; they are somewhere on the horizon of our efforts; they provide meaning and direction; they are not, however, static quotas that we either fulfill or do not. By Vaclav Havel Case Ideals Efforts Direction Static

Idealism is the death of the body and the imagination. All but freedom, utter freedom, is death By Anais Nin Idealism Imagination Freedom Death Body

Person you want to be and assume that you are already that person. If this assumption is persisted in until it becomes your dominant feeling, the attainment of your ideal is inevitable. By Neville Goddard Person Assume Feeling Inevitable Assumption

Idealism in the young, I guess I'm saying, is curiosity as well as goodness trying to express itself. By Dorothy Day Idealism Young Guess Curiosity Goodness

Our ideals are our better selves. By Amos Bronson Alcott Ideals

Wishful thinking is not idealism. It is self-indulgence at best and self-exaltation at worst. In either case, it is usually at the expense of others. In other words, it is the opposite of idealism. By Thomas Sowell Wishful Idealism Thinking Worst Selfindulgence

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the sea fearing man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny By Carl Schurz Ideals Stars Hands Waters Guides

Each of us must work to become a hardheaded realist, or else we risk wasting our time and energy on pursuing impossible dreams. Yet constant naysayers pursue no less impossible dreams. Their fear and cynicism move nothing forward. They kill progress. How many cynics built empires, great cities, or powerful corporations? By Colin Powell Dreams Realist Impossible Work Hardheaded

The ideal is not believing in, but believing from. By Eric Butterworth Believing Ideal

Idealism may get us into the fray, but it is the loss of all we cherish that begins to form in us a heart capable of leading others reluctantly and humbly. By Dan B. Allender Idealism Fray Humbly Loss Cherish

Ideals are like the stars - you can't touch them with your hands, but by following them you reach your destination. By Thomas S. Monson Ideals Stars Hands Destination Touch

But are they heroes or mere dreamers? By Gaius Valerius Flaccus Dreamers Heroes Mere