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Idealist Quotes

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Idealist Quotes

“By extricating 'reality' from mind, materialism has sent the significance of nature into exile. With the pathetic grin of hubris stamped on our foolish faces, we carefully unwrap the package and then proceed to throw away its contents whileb proudly storing the empty box on the altar of our ontology. What a huge stash of empty boxes have we accumulated! Idols of stupidity they are; public reminders of a state of affairs that would be hilarious if it weren't tragic. The meaning of it all is unfolding right under our noses, all the time, but we can't see it. We don't pay any attention. We were taught from childhood to avert our gaze, lest we be considered fools. So now we seem to live in some kind of collective trance, lost in a daze the likes of which have probably never before been witnessed in history. We feel the gaping emptiness and meaninglessness of our condition in the depths of our psyches. But, like a desperate man thrashing about in quicksand, our reactions only make things worse: we chase more fictitious goals and accumulate more fictitious stuff, precisely the things that distract us further from watching what is really happening. And, when we finally realize the senselessness of such reactions, we turn to 'gurus' doling out pill-form answers instead of paying attention to life, the only authentic teacher, who is constantly speaking to us. There is no literal shortcut to whatever it is that the metaphor of life is trying to convey. There is no literal truth. The meaning of it all cannot be communicated directly. There are no secret answers spelled out in words in some rare old book. The metaphor is the only way to the answers, if only we have patience and pay attention. Look around: what is life trying to say?”

MindConsciousnessPsychologyMeaningIdealismIdealistJungHard Problem Of ConsciousnessBernardo KastrupKastrup
Book:Why Materialism Is Baloney: How True Skeptics Know There is no Death and Fathom Answers to Life, the Universe and Everything
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“Sometimes your belief system is really your fears attached to rules.”

WisdomPainPastFearGrowthFreedomLearningGrowingPerspectiveListeningAnxietyDiversityExpectationsBraveryPersonal GrowthBoundariesSelf DiscoveryFearlessBarriersAccountabilityControlledOpennessFearfulOwnershipBeliefsIntrospectionRulesOpen MindedFearsDirectionStereotypesBlindedIdealistBelief SystemsBrainwashedWallsOcdStayingpositiveu ComHurtsStaying PositivePrisonersBreaking FreeSelf EvaluationUnrealistic ExpectationsKnowing What You WantFalse BeliefsTaking ControlBlindsightedPerspectives On LifeOpen Minded LifeSelf Esteem 101Beliefs In YourselfSelf Imposed PainVictomizationRoad Blocks
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“For the philosopher, language, thought, and passion are the same. Ideas are personal to a philosopher; they express their human passion and articulate their novel ideas in language. Ideas are more than mere concepts, trifles that the philosophical mind toys with. Ideas provide both the structure and inner vitality that holds great thinkers’ conceptual structure together.”

IdeasPhilosophyLanguageThoughtsPhilosophy QuotesWritersWriting LifeWriting QuotesThoughts On LifeIdealistPhilosophical MusingsIdeas QuotesPhilosophers
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“She had devoted time to improving her reading and was now more than proficient. The shelf she'd first cleared with Bianca overflowed with tales of King Arthur and his knights, Ovid's poetry, plays by Sophocles, Aristotle and Aeschylus, Apuleius, names she loved repeating in her mind because the mere sound of them conjured the drama, pageantry, passion, transformations and suffering of their heroes and heroines. One of her favorite writers was Geoffrey Chaucer-- his poems of pilgrims exchanging stories as they traveled to a shrine in Canterbury were both heart aching and often sidesplittingly funny. Admittedly, one of the reasons she loved Chaucer was because she could read him for herself. It was the same reason she picked up Shakespeare over and over, and the works of Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle upon Tyne. They all wrote in English. Regarded as quite the eccentric, the duchess was a woman of learning who, like Rosamund, was self-taught. Her autobiography, A True Relation of my Birth, Breeding and Life, a gift from Mr. Henderson, gave Rosamund a model to emulate. Here was a woman who dared to consider not only philosophy, science, astronomy and romance, but to write about her reflections and discoveries in insightful ways. Defying her critics, she determined that women were men's intellectual equal, possessed of as quick a wit and as many subtleties if only given the means to express themselves-- in other words, access to education.”

ReadingBooksWritersAutobiographyIdealistPhilosophersChaucerCavendish
Book:The Chocolate Maker's Wife
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“We have to think of something new in order to wake people up. Because at the moment people have become so blasé. How do you get through this miasma of complacency and make people listen? How do we break through it and slap people’s faces—metaphorically—and say, “The world’s collapsing around you, and all you’re worried about is how many ‘likes’ you’ve got on your social media accounts. For fuck’s sake, wake up!” We used to think we were a romantic existentialist. But after all the incredible evidence we’ve witnessed in different shamanic traditions worldwide, we’ve had to adjust our perceptions. Now we are happy to be a compassionate utopian idealist. The potential of humanity is infinite. And the choices we make as a species could be either our downfall or our celebration. That’s what we think about now: What’s next? There is definitely a parallel between what was happening at the end of the 1970s and what is happening now. People need to be slapped awake … but that’s not our job anymore. All of you who are reading this: you’re supposed to be changing this. You must. “Because what happens in the future is a direct result of what you do and don’t do right now. There’s always a way. You don’t need resources. You don’t need money. You just need to have an idea that’s strong enough, and that you feel strongly enough about, that you will go against everybody else to say or to put into practice. Please go out and try to change the fucking world. End gender. Break sex. Short-circuit control.” .”

ArtChangeCreativitySocietyGenderIdealist
Book:Nonbinary: Personal essays exploring gender outside the binary and carving out space.
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“This was genius at close quarters, and genius had that something above normal in it that was a great strain upon the ordinary mind and feeling. All five were different from each other, yet each had that curious quality of burning intensity, the single-mindedness of purpose that made such a terrifying impression. She did not know whether it were a quality of brain or rather a quality of outlook, of intensity. But each of them, she thought, was in his or her way a passionate idealist.”

PurposePassionGeniusIdealistSingle Mindedness
Book:Destination unknown
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“As we go through life, we essentially grow a personality. Our personality branches out in many directions to assist us organize our thoughts, feelings, values, ideas, and coping mechanisms. Our exhibited behavior – the way we organize and deal with life – becomes an external representation of our central self.”

IdeasValuesPersonalityBehaviorIdealistPersonality DevelopmentValues In LifePersonality TraitsBehavioral ChangeValues And BeliefsPersonality QuotesValues And PrinciplesSelf Discover
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“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.”

WritingSpiritualSpiritualityHopeExpectationsMemoirSymbolsHopefulIdealismAutobiographyMysticalWriting ProcessAuthorsSymbolismMemoir WritingIdealistExpectationIdealisticPersonal EssaysHopeful QuotesEssay WritingExpectations QuotesPersonal EssayIdealists
Author:Kilroy J. Oldster
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“If the throne changes hands, we will be invaded. My son is an idealist. Idealists make great leaders, but they never make good rulers. So I'll tell you what I believe, Amani. I believe that if my son's rebellion were ever to succeed, or even gain enough of a foothold to cast doubt upon my rule, we would be torn to shreds by foreign powers. It would destroy Miraji, just like my father would have destroyed it before us. - The Sultan”

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Book:Traitor to the Throne
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“Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.”

MenLoveHandsStarsSportsWaterChangeDestinyHuman NatureSucceedIdealsFollowingGuidesOptimisticDesertTouchingYou ChooseIdealismOur DestinyYour DestinyIdealistMy DestinyMasonsFate DestinyMasonicFate And DestinyLife DestinyLife And DestinyDestiny And ChoiceFuture Destiny
Book:Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz
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“Ideas first and last: yet it is not till these are formulated and utilized that the devotees of the common sense discern their value and advantages. The idealist is the capitalist on whose resources multitudes are maintained life long. Ideas in the head set hands about their several tasks, thus carrying forward all human endeavors to their issues.”

FirstsHumansLongIdeasHandsLastsValuesCommonIssuesResourcesAdvantageTasksCommon SenseEndeavorCapitalistMultitudesLong LifeIdealistDevoteeFirsts And Lasts
Author:Amos Bronson Alcott
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“It would scarcely be destruction," he replied gently. "Let us call it iconoclasm, the swallowing of formulas, which has always had its full retinue of idealists. And you do not want a Napoleon . All that is needed is direction, which could be given by men of far lower gifts than a Bonaparte. In a word, you want a Power-House, and then the age of miracles will begin.”

MenWantAgeHouseGivenNeededDestructionMiracleFormulasIdealistSwallowingBonaparteIconoclasm
Book:The Complete Works of John Buchan (Unabridged): Thriller Classics, Spy Novels, Supernatural Tales, Short Stories, Poetry, Historical Works, The Great War Writings, Essays, Biographies & Memoirs – All in One Volume
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“The reclusive man who marries the gregarious woman, the timid woman who marries the courageous man, the idealist who marries the realist we can all see these unions: the marriages in which tenderness meets loyalty, where generosity sweetens moroseness, where a sense of beauty eases some aridity of the spirit, are not so easy for outsiders to recognize; the parties themselves may not be fully aware of such elements in a good match.”

MenMaySpiritEasyPartyElementsUnionsLoyaltyGenerosityEaseCourageousTendernessOutsidersRealistIdealistGregariousCourageous Man
Author:Robertson Davies
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“When I say that terrorism is war against civilization, I may be met by the objection that terrorists are often idealists pursuing worthy ultimate aims -- national or regional independence, and so forth. I do not accept this argument. I cannot agree that a terrorist can ever be an idealist, or that the objects sought can ever justify terrorism. The impact of terrorism, not merely on individual nations, but on humanity as a whole, is intrinsically evil, necessarily evil and wholly evil.”

MayWarWholeHumanityEvilIndividualNationsAcceptingObjectsCivilizationMetsArgumentUltimateAimAgreeIndependenceImpactWorthyTerrorismTerroristJustifyObjectionsIdealist
Author:Benjamin Netanyahu
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“Man is by nature a pragmatic materialist, a mechanic, a lover of gadgets and gadgetry; and these are the qualities that characterize the "establishment" which regulates modern society: pragmatism, materialism, mechanization, and gadgetry. Woman, on the other hand, is a practical idealist, a humanitarian with a strong sense of noblesse oblige, an altruist rather than a capitalist.”

MenHandsStrongQualityModernLoversHumanitarianPracticalsMaterialismEstablishmentCapitalistMechanicPragmaticIdealistModern SocietyGadgetsPragmatismMechanizationNoblesse Oblige
Author:Elizabeth Gould Davis
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“Our idealists must own that their velleity to abolish all suffering is most fully expressed in the Fifth Wisdom of Lamaism, the doctrine that teaches that "no durable happiness, nor yet security, for any sentient being can exist while others are a prey to suffering." That truth cannot be questioned and you may take it to heart: in practical terms it means we got ourselves born on the wrong planet - in the wrong universe.”

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Author:Revilo P. Oliver
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“[I]n contrast to the common belief that they are the world's greatest cynics, the best journalists are the world's great idealists. They have experienced firsthand the great soothing balance of human existence. For every disgrace there is triumph, for every wrong there is a moment of justice, for every funeral a wedding, for every obituary a birth announcement.”

WorldHumansMomentsBeliefJusticeCommonExistenceBirthBalanceTriumphJournalistFuneralContrastDisgraceGreat IdeaHuman ExistenceSoothingIdealistAnnouncementsObituary
Author:Anna Quindlen
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“Jesus, in fact, was typical of a certain kind of fanatical young idealist: at one moment holding forth, with tears in his eyes, about the need for universal love; at the next, furiously denouncing the morons, crooks and bigots who did not see eye to eye with him. It is very natural and very human behaviour. But it is not superhuman.”

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Author:Margaret E. Knight
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“[Some] people really expect the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life, whereas nature only intended that it should meet one of many demands. They insist on making it stand for all the emotional pleasures of life and art; expecting an individual and self-limited passion to yield infinite variety, pleasure, and distraction, and to contribute to their lives what the arts and the pleasurable exercise of the intellect gives to less limited and less intense idealists.”

PeopleNeedsGivingShouldArtSelfPassionIndividualPleasureEmotionalExerciseDemandInfiniteIntellectIntenseVarietyYieldDistractionExpectingIdealistPleasures Of LifeLove Passion
Book:The Essential Willa Cather Collection
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“Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact that no group of idealists can easily move the pattern of history toward the desired goal of peace and justice. The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.”

HumansWholeFactsDreamMovingForceGoalJusticeGroupsDramaHistoricalPatternsPersistenceOur DreamsHuman HistoryIdealistPeace And JusticeReckoningHuman WillRecalcitrant
Book:Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)
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