James McGreevey

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.

American Politician

Kailash Satyarthi

The power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world. The faces of young people are the faces of our past, our present and our future. No segment in the society can match with the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage of the young people.

Indian Activist

Jeff Perry

Most actors will tell you this - I don't really know how to connect, empathize with, or make worthy of any revelation a character that doesn't have love in there somewhere, that doesn't have an idealism or an empathy in there somewhere.

American Actor

Orhan Pamuk

Idealism, unrealistic idealism, is always contrasted with the reality of the people, of the man in the street. The details of daily life are always more convincing than the political fantasies of the earlier generations.

Novelist

Thomas Sowell

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.

American Economist

Richard Stallman

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.

Scientist

Rod Blagojevich

Whatever happened to a sense of idealism and embracing an idea that will help people and, in this case, children?

Peter Hook

What I've learned is that life is a balance between idealism and realism.

English Musician

Pearl S. Buck

Life without idealism is empty indeed. We just hope or starve to death.

American Novelist

Stephen Kinzer

It is never wise to discourage youthful idealism.

American Author

Idealism often represents wishful thinking rather than practical solutions.

Unrealistic Aspirations

Idealism can have a positive sense, implying someone has high standards or ethics.

Positive Connotation

Idealists may face disappointment when reality doesn't meet their ideals.

Prone to Disappointment

Philosophical idealism suggests our mental perceptions shape our reality.

Mind over Matter

Understanding idealism in philosophy requires reading works by philosophers like Plato.

Interpreting Philosophers

Philosophical idealism deals with abstract concepts that aren't always tangible.

Abstract Thought

Political idealism emphasizes moral values over practical interests in foreign affairs.

Values in Policy

Critics might call politically idealist actions naive, as they can overlook practicalities.

May Seem Naive

Historical events, like Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, demonstrate political idealism.

Historical Examples

 You can be your own boss, help the poor and make good money doing it. Medical folks, you wrote on your school application essays that you wanted to help those less fortunate. But then you had your idealism beaten out of you in training. Your creativity bred out of you.

How doctors can help...

 the idealism can get moved away. I'm just wondering whether you can see that changing over time, whether you see in Britain that there are changing attitudes, and that people are actually more supportive of the kind of global ethic that you talk about.

Gordon Brown on global...

 on it I would they always want to read into it and before I was just using pieces of poetry and stuff that just would spew out of me a lot of times when I write lyrics this isn't the last second cuz I'm really lazy there was an idealism I think that

Nirvana in the Nineties...

 And the floor that you walk on, can it affect the way that you walk? Can it change the footprint that you'll ultimately leave on the world? I remember being nine years old and feeling wonder, and possibility, and a little bit of idealism.

Magical houses, made of...

 I'd like to begin by talking about some of the ideas that motivated me to become a documentary photographer. I was a student in the '60s, a time of social upheaval and questioning, and on a personal level, an awakening sense of idealism.

My photographs bear...

 with one as the grounded realist to the other’s idealism. Their lively, evolving friendship is often credited as the original hero and sidekick duo, inspiring centuries of fictional partnerships. Don Quixote was a huge success.

Why should you read "Don...

 to build up this organization and stay focused on our purpose. So my suggestion is, find something that you really love, that you really can contribute to, that really supports your idealism,

How a geospatial nervous...

 What I would like to see is idealism decoupled from all constraints. Political, economic, psychological, whatever. The geopolitical world has got a lot to learn from the digital world.

Bono: Action for Africa

 idealism in all of that wreckage. And perhaps also, there's a lesson about how to deal with our screwed-up, fragmenting and dangerous world of the 21st century.

Carne Ross: An...

 born of idealism. It's a company that thrives on idealism. And maybe because of that, compassion is organic and widespread company-wide.