Ideal - Idealists Quotes

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

It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.

I am an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.

The noblest movements are apt to outlive their usefulness when their zeal develops into formation: an ideal creates an institution, and then the institution suffocates the ideal.

The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best-chosen word.

We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their acts.

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But, like the seafaring men on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them reach your destiny.

The visionary denies the truth to himself, the liar only to others.

Ideals are thoughts. So long as they exist merely as thoughts, the power in them remains ineffective.

Our shortcomings are the eyes with which we see the ideal.