Idealists Quotes

“Nice people don't necessarily fall in love with nice people.”
― Jonathan Franzen, Freedom

“You know, the whole thing about perfectionism. The perfectionism is very dangerous. Because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything. Because doing anything results in...it's actually kind of tragic because you sacrifice how gorgeous and perfect it is in your head for what it really is. And there were a couple of years where I really struggled with that.”
― David Foster Wallace

“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, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“And when I fall in love,” I began, "I will build a mountain to touch the sky. Then, my lover and I will have the best of both worlds, reality firmly under our feet, while we have our heads in the clouds with all our illusions still intact. And the purple grass will grow all around, high enough to reach our eyes.”
― V.C. Andrews, Flowers in the Attic

“Reality is what people who lack vision see.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Confessions of a Misfit

“Idealists can be quite a problem when they get disgusted with themselves.”
― J.G. Ballard, Super-Cannes

“A genius is a grown-up that did not grow up.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Confessions of a Misfit

“Disarming an idealist was easy. One only needed to ask why the idealist was not on the front line of the particular battle he had chosen.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“That Monk mocks. Challenges.
It’s the same old issue with the idealists. They judge the devil, and people call them the humans of light. However, the Mesmerizer agrees little with the Monk. The Mesmerizer will prove that even a monk may fall prey to the devil. He knows that man will try to avoid the dark path. He knows that man will try to stay a purist.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Finally, the president added, 'The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic...”
― Bob Woodward, Obama's Wars

“Shahid was the free spirit of the Kamal family: a dreamer, an idealist, a wanderer on the face of the earth--or, as Ahmed would put it, a lazy fuckwit.”
― John Lanchester, Capital

“Disarming an idealist was easy”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“...I always thought youth were idealists - now, I'm not so sure - I'm more idealistic now then at 17...”
― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

“Maigret had often tried to get other people, including men of experience, to admit that those who fall, especially those who have a morbid determination to descend ever lower, are almost always idealists.”
― Georges Simenon, Maigret and the Headless Corpse

“Idealists are the cruelest monsters of them all.”
― Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation

“We write, edit, and rewrite the story of our own life employing descriptive words, metaphors, and symbols. Our lives are full of symbols including those supplied by nature and religion, which touch upon the mystical and spiritual aspects of life. Symbols inspire enduring hope by formulating idealist expectations.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster

“The Bible angers and frustrates those who believe that the pursuit of a perfect society justifies the quest for absolute power.”
― Peter Hitchens, The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith

“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.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Aurélie had learned from heartbreak that love is not for idealists, but realists; it should always be passionate, but it is always dangerous. That infatuation is a game of power, but love leaves us powerless--and it is our dignity in its aftermath that defines us.”
― Ophélia Darwish, Revenge

“[We learn] from heartbreak that love is not for idealists, but realists; it should always be passionate, but it is always dangerous. That infatuation is a game of power, but love leaves us powerless--and it is our dignity in its aftermath that defines us.”
― Ophélia Darwish, Revenge

“A person without even a proper local goal is never likely to understand the enormous determination and extraordinary work pace of an idealistic mind strongly focused on a universal goal has shown to achieve his goal!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“He winced. I had hit him where it hurt, in the solar plexus of his conscience, where everyone who was an idealist was vulnerable. Disarming an idealist was easy. One only needed to ask why the idealist was not on the front line of the particular battle he had chosen.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“But why does he want to kill all white people?”

Carlyle watched him a moment, then motioned for him to sit on the bed. “I guess because you need it; he’s an idealist.”
― William Melvin Kelley, Dem