#idealist

Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves. ↗

— Robert Anton Wilson

#cynics #equally #everybody #except #idealists

You're an idealist, and I pity you as I would the village idiot. ↗

— Stanley Kubrick

#idealist #idiot #pity #village #would

It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals. ↗

— Bertrand Russell

#fate #form #idealists #ideals #obtain

The idealists dream and the dream is told, and the practical men listen and ponder and bring back the truth and apply it to human life, and progress and growth and higher human ideals come into being and so the world moves ever on. ↗

— Anna Howard Shaw

#back #being #bring #come #dream

Any idealist who tries to join the Peace Corps must realize he is not going to change the world overnight. ↗

— Sargent Shriver

#change #change the world #corps #going #idealist

I think it's realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: 'I despair. The world's no good.' That's a perverse idealist. It's practical to hope, because the hope is for us to survive as a human species. That's very realistic. ↗

— Studs Terkel

#despair #easiest #easiest thing #good #hope

Nice people don't necessarily fall in love with nice people. ↗

— Jonathan Franzen

#co-dependence #divorce #idealism #idealists #marriage

Isana stared at Gaius for a moment. Then she said, "How can you live with yourself?" The First Lord stared at her for a moment, his eyes cold. Then he spoke in a very quiet, precise, measured voice. "I look out my window each day. I look out my window at people who live and breathe. At people who have not been devoured by civil war. At people who have not been ravaged by disease. At people who have not starved to death, who have not been hacked apart by enemies of humanity, at people who are free to lie and steal and plot and complain and accuse and behave in all manner of repugnant ways because the Realm stands. Because law and order stands. Because something other than simple violence shapes the course of their lives. And I look, wife of my son, mother of my heir, at a very few decent people who have had the luxury of living their lives without being called upon to make hideous decisions I would not wish upon my worst enemies, and who consequently find such matters morally appalling when they consider them--because they have not had to be the ones who dealt with them." He took a short, hard swallow of wine. "Feh. Aquitaine thinks me his enemy. The fool. If I truly hated him, I'd give him the Crown. ↗

— Jim Butcher

#moral-decisions #death

It is interesting that we call something good a “dream,” but being called a “dreamer” is somewhat of a putdown. Without dreamers, no dream would ever be given reality, and we would live in a very small and shallow world. If you are a secret dreamer, it’s your time to announce yourself. ↗

— Vera Nazarian

#dreamers #idealist #idealists #reality #secret

Idealist: a cynic in the making. ↗

— Irving Layton

#idealist #making