best quotations about
Ideals |
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Quotations
 | As history has also shown, especially in the twentieth century, one of the first things an ideologue will do after achieving absolute power is kill. — Thomas Sowell, 1930 -, American political thinker 13 likes |
 | Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea. And there is only one higher idea on earth, and it is the idea of the immortality of the human soul. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881, Russian writer 9 likes |
 | You see things; you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish writer, Nobel 1925 8 likes |
 | An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic 7 likes |
 | Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing. — Wolfgang Goethe, 1749-1832, German poet & philosopher 7 likes |
 | A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind. — Robert Oxton Bolt, 1924-1955, British playwright 6 likes |
 | At twenty, a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy, he still wants to reform the world, but he knows he can’t. — Rodney Dangerfield, 1924-2004, American comedian 6 likes |
 | There were a lot of utopias in the nineteenth century, wonderful societies that we might possibly construct. Those went pretty much out of fashion after World War I. — Margaret Atwood, 1939 -, Canadian writer 5 likes |
 | A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. — John Kennedy, 1917-1963, American President [1961-1963] 4 likes |
 | I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way. — Carl Sandburg, 1878-1967, American poet 4 likes |
 | Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799, German author of maxims 4 likes |
 | An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left. — Lawrence Durrell, 1912-1990, British writer 3 likes |
 | If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. — Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862, American writer 3 likes |
 | An aimless life is always a troubled life. Every individual should have an aim. But do not forget that the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher 3 likes |
 | There is no shame in changing your mind every day: to change your mind you need to have spare ideas. — Pitigrilli (Dino Segre), 1893-1975, Italian writer 2 likes |
 | Utopia is a mixture of childish rationalism and secularized angelism. — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 2 likes |
| The ideal being? An angel ravaged by humor. — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 2 likes |
 | Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination. — Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804, German philosopher 2 likes |
| I’m an idealist without illusions. — John Kennedy, 1917-1963, American President [1961-1963] 2 likes |
 | The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love. — Albert Camus, 1913-1960, French writer, Nobel 1957 2 likes |
 | France may still one day need an image that is pure... If Joan of Arc had married, she would no longer have been Joan of Arc. — Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970, French President 2 likes |
 | The superman is a premature ideal, one that presupposes a man. — Karl Kraus, 1874-1936, Austrian writer 2 likes |
 | The newspapers are the cemeteries of ideas. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 1809-1865, French anarchist 2 likes |
 | Idealism is based on big ideas. And, as anybody who has ever been asked "What's the big idea?" knows, most big ideas are bad ones. — P.J. O’ Rourke, 1947-2022, American columnist & writer 2 likes |
 | Old age is not bearable without a great cause or a vice. |
 | Once the mind has been expanded by a big idea, it will never go back to its original state. |
 | Intelligence consists not in handling intelligent ideas, but in handling any idea intelligently. |
 | Don't be tempted to ask, “Will we win? Will we be defeated?” Just fight! |
| Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent. |
 | Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. |
 | Some people are so heavenly minded, that they are no earthly good. |
| A man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. |
 | She was the amoureuse of all the novels, the heroine of all the plays, the vague “she” of all the poetry books. — Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880, French writer ‐ Madame Bovary |
| Without ideality, there is no grandeur; without grandeur there is no beauty. |
 | The greatest gift is health. The greatest wealth is satisfaction. And the best relationship is faith. |
 | In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vice. |
 | For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. |
 | Man can only be built by pursuing what exceeds him. |
 | A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself. |
 | We chase dreams and embrace shadows. |
 | If you trust in yourself.... and believe in your dreams.... and follow your star... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. |
 | Since ideals have such an irresistible inclination to disappoint us, it is wisdom to have more than one. |
| It’s not the reality that’s vulgar, it’s the ideal. |
| Woman’s ideal: to be served in the little things, and to serve in the big ones. |
 | Only the ideas that we actually live are of any value. |
 | Political leaders are never leaders. For leaders we have to look to the Awakeners! Lao Tse, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Milarepa, Gurdjiev, Krishnamurti. |
| The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic |
| A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience. |
| Ideas tyrannize the man who has but few. |
Funny Quotes
 | For me, it's always easy to choose between the Ultimate, the Infinite, and the Chocolate. — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-, British cartoonist & epigrammatist |
| Everybody wants to save the world but nobody wants to help mom with the dishes. |
