#idealism

But he had always believed in fighting for the underdog, against the top dog. He had learned it, not from The Home, or The School, or The Church, but from that fourth and other great moulder of social conscience, The Movies. From all those movies that had begun to come out when Roosevelt went in. He had been a kid back then, a kid who had not been on the bum yet, but he was raised up on all those movies that they made then, the ones that were between '32 and '37 and had not yet degenerated into commercial imitations of themselves like the Dead End Kid perpetual series that we have now. He had grown up with them, those movies like the every first Dead End, like Winternet, like Grapes Of Wrath, like Dust Be My Destiny, and those other movies starring John Garfield and the Lane girls, and the on-the-bum and prison pictures starring James Cagney and George Raft and Henry Fonda. ↗

— James Jones

#idealism #james-cagney #movies #rebels #roosevelt

For even if we know very little that is certain about spirit or soul, the true nature of the body, of materiality, is totally unknown and incomprehensible to us. ↗

— Wilhelm von Humboldt

#materialism #nature

Industry, technology, and commerce can thrive only as long as an idealistic national community offers the necessary preconditions. And these do not lie in material egoism, but in a spirit of sacrifice and joyful renunciation. ↗

— Adolf Hitler

#principle #renunciation #sacrifice #spirit #thriving

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

#aside #been #does #ever #great

Idealism loses to pragmatism when it comes to winning elections. ↗

— Danny Strong

#elections #idealism #loses #pragmatism #winning

Idealism, alas, does not protect one from ignorance, dogmatism, and foolishness. ↗

— Sidney Hook

#does #dogmatism #foolishness #idealism #ignorance

The idealist hopes. The romantic sees doom. The postmodernist sees doom and hopes. ↗

— Bauvard

#humor #idealism #funny

But it is well to remember that we are dealing with nations every one of which has a direct individual interest to serve, and there is grave danger in an unshared idealism. ↗

— Henry Cabot Lodge

#dealing #direct #every #grave #grave danger

When I first ran for public office, it was with the passion and idealism of a young man who believed that government could help make our lives better, that public service was a calling and that citizenship demanded responsibilities. There was a greater good. ↗

— James McGreevey

#better #calling #citizenship #could #demanded

By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#asking #concentrating #disadvantage #faith #future