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Ideals Quotes

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Ideals Quotes

“We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortification are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is God’s arrival that is the important event.”

ThinkingMeanPersonsImportantEndsLightChristianEvilVirtueClearEventsEgoNegativeIdealsHatredPlantCharitySeedsOpeningChristian LifeGod LoveWeedIntensityHis LoveArrivalsAsceticismPenanceMortificationPull UpsFerocityImportant Events
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
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“Use the imagination to picture only what is good, what is beautiful, what is beneficial, what is ideal, and what you wish to realize. Mentally see yourself receiving what you deeply desire to receive. What you imagine, you will think, and what you think, you will become. Therefore, if you imagine only those things that are in harmony with what you wish to obtain or achieve, all your thinking will soon tend to produce what you want to attain or achieve.”

IfsThinkingWantUseBeautifulDesireWishRealizingImaginationImagineAchieveProduceIdealsHarmonyWhat You WantReceivingBeneficial
Author:Christian D. Larson
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“My urgent advice to you would be, not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellowmen. He has lost touch with the ideal of America. For America was created to unit mankind.”

IfsThinkingMenFirstsWould BeTogetherAmericaHumanityPassionLostJusticeAdviceMankindHe ManIdealsHatredSorryJealousDividesCampsUnitsUrgentI Am SorryAm Sorry
Author:Woodrow Wilson
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“You know, in an ideal world, people would just be intrigued and go and see a film without knowing anything about it, because that's where you're going to have the most experience of a film, the biggest, the most revelation of a film. But at the same time, I think there are benefits of having seen a trailer where you actually look forward to seeing moments in a film knowing that they're coming up. I don't know which is better.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldLooksMomentsFilmKnowingSeeingBenefitsIdealsRevelationsIntriguedTrailersIdeal World
Author:Duncan Jones
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“Parents are not the all-knowing, ideal people we would like you to think we are. We've made wrong choices before, and will again, like everyone else, .. But our mistakes are not the measure of our love for you. You are that measure, and how well you are prepared to make better choices than we have made.”

PeopleThinkingWellsMadeChoicesParentMistakeKnowingLike YouIdealsPreparedOur LoveWrong Choices
Book:Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember
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“Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave. That is why I believe that this frightfulness we see everywhere today is only temporary. Tomorrow will be better for as long as America keeps alive the ideals of freedom and a better life. All men will want to be free and share our way of life. There must be so much that I should have said, but haven't. What I will say now is just what most of us are probably thinking every day. I thank God and America for the right to live and raise my family under the flag of tolerance, democracy and freedom.”

ThinkingMenWayWantShouldBelieveLongSaidTodayAmericaI BelieveFreedomDemocracyAliveShareHavensTomorrowIdealsMy FamilyShould HaveRaisesSlaveToleranceTemporaryThank GodFlagsBetter LifeBe A SlaveTomorrow Will Be Better
Author:Walt Disney
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“It is not truly realistic or scientific to take short views, to sacrifice the future to immediate pressure, to ignore facts and forces that are disagreeable and to magnify the enduring quality of whatever falls in with immediate desire. It is false that the evils of the situation arise from absence of ideals; they spring from wrong ideals.”

ThinkingFactsDesireFallEvilForceViewsQualitySituationSacrificeSpringIdealsPressureEndureAbsenceAriseRealisticDisagreeable
Book:The Middle Works, 1899-1924: 1920
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“Antiessentialist thinking forces us to view the world differently. We must accept shadings and continua as fundamental. We lose criteria for judgment by comparison to some ideal: short people, retarded people, people of other beliefs, colors, and religions are people of full status.”

PeopleThinkingWorldBeliefForceLosesViewsAcceptingColorJudgmentIdealsFundamentalsComparisonCriteriaRetardedShort People
Book:The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History
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“I can only think seriously of trying to live up to an ideal, to improve myself, if I am split in two pieces. There must be a good “I” who is going to improve the bad “me.” “I,” who has the best intentions, will go to work on wayward “me,” and the tussle between the two will very much stress the difference between them. Consequently “I” will feel more separate than ever, and so merely increase the lonely and cut-off feelings which make “me” behave so badly.”

IfsThinkingFeelsTryingI CanTwoFeelingsDifferencesPiecesCuttingIdealsLonelyIncreaseStressIntentionBehaveSplitsProve MyselfBest Intentions
Author:Alan Watts
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“The modern world is reversing the old virtues of authority. They aimed deliberately to make men unworldly. They did not aim to found society on a full use of the earth's resources; they did not aim to use the whole nature of man; they did not intend him to think out the full expression of his desires. Democracy is a turning point upon those ideals in a pursuit, at first unconsciously, of the richest life that men can devise for themselves.”

ThinkingMenWorldFirstsWholeUseEarthDesireFoundVirtueDemocracyModernExpressionAuthorityResourcesIdealsAimPursuitModern WorldTurning PointsNature Of Man
Author:Walter Lippmann
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“The authority of science promotes and encourages the activity of observing, comparing, measuring and ordering the physical characteristics of human bodies. Cartesian epistemology and classical ideals produced forms of rationality, scientificity and objectivity that, though efficacious in the quest for truth and knowledge, prohibited the intelligibility and legitimacy of black equality. In fact, to "think" such an idea was to be deemed irrational, barbaric or mad.”

ThinkingHumansIdeasFactsBodyFormBlackActivityAuthorityIdealsMadCompareCharacteristicsQuestsIrrationalRationalityHuman BodyObservingObjectivityMeasuringLegitimacyEpistemologyBarbaricTruth And Knowledge
Author:Cornel West
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“I think that it is a fallacy to suppose that helpful cooperation in the future will be assured by the attempted compulsion of an inflexible rule. Rather will such cooperation depend upon the fostering of firm friendships springing from an appreciation of community ideals, interests, and purposes, and such friendships are more likely to be promoted by freedom of conference than by the effort to create hard and fast engagements.”

ThinkingHardPurposeInterestCommunityEffortDependsIdealsAppreciationFirmHelpfulCooperationEngagementAssuredConferencesCompulsionFallacyFostering
Author:Charles Evans Hughes
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“Nonsense prevails, modesty fails Grace and virtue turn into stupidity While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts They still think they're the gods of antiquity If something you missed didn't even exist It was just an ideal is it such a surprise?”

IfsThinkingStillsTurnsLeaderVirtueGraceFailingIdealsSurpriseStupidityCompromiseBeastNonsenseFadesModestyPaleAntiquityCalendarsBarricadesBacksides
Author:Elvis Costello
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“There's one bright spot in the generally gloomy picture know as the Pacific Conflict Zone. According to my calculations, by the year 2500 or so we should have killed off every last member of our species who is stupid enough to take part in so futile a pastime as this war between "ideals," and with luck they won't have left their genes behind because they'll typically have been killed at an age when society thinks they're too young to assume the responsibility of childbearing. After that we may get some peace and quiet for a change.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldYearsMayHas BeensWarEnoughAgeLastsYoungLeftBehindsResponsibilityStupidQuietConflictMembersIdealsShould HaveLuckAssumingSpeciesSpotsZoneGenesCalculationsPacificGloomyPastimePeace And QuietChildbearing
Author:John Brunner
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“The last verse [In My Secret Life] completely got to me, about how we all have great ideals but in reality we end up conforming, following everyone else. We want to be stronger so we lead that life inside, thinking of ourselves as these great brave souls. I literally thought when I was 15 that I was a musical genius and I could change the world, but in fact you're not and you can't and you don't, and that realisation is almost heartbreaking.”

ThinkingWorldWantSoulEndsFactsRealityLastsSecretGeniusIdealsStrongerBraveMusicalFollowingChanging The WorldVersesConformGreat IdeaHeartbreakingRealisationSecret LifeBrave SoulsMusical Genius
Author:Katie Melua
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“If the subjectivist view hold true, thinking cannot be of any help in determining the desirability of any goal in itself. The acceptability of ideals, the criteria for our actions and beliefs, the leading principles of ethics and politics, all our ultimate decisions are made to depend upon factors other than reason. They are supposed to be matters of choice and predilection, and it has become meaningless to speak of truth in making practical, moral or esthetic decisions.”

IfsThinkingMadeMatterReasonHelpingActionChoicesBeliefSpeakGoalDecisionViewsMoralPrinciplesDependsEthicsIdealsUltimatePracticalsFactorsSupposed To BeMeaninglessOur ActionsCriteriaDesirability
Author:Max Horkheimer
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“I love religion. I could make up religions all day. I sort of think that in an ideal world I'd like to be a religion designer. I'd like people come up to me and say, I need a religion. I'd go talk to them for a while, and I'd design a religion for them. That would be a great job. There's a need for people like that. Fortunately, seeing that one can't actually do it, I get paid for sort of making them up anyway.”

PeopleThinkingWorldNeedsWould BeJobsSeeingDesignHumourIdealsPaidCome UpDesignerGreat JobIdeal World
Author:Neil Gaiman
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“What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and falacious! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend.”

ThinkingYearsMayReasonCharacterGovernmentFormSpeakActingLibertyStepsTakenToo MuchWiseHorrorEqualCapableConsequenceIdealsBasesTriumphIncapableAstonishingRespectableGoverningDespotismForms Of GovernmentIrrevocableAvertSingle Step
Author:George Washington
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“All of us in this country give lip service to the ideals set forth in the Bill of Rights and emphasized by every additional amendment, and yet when war is stirring in the world, many of us are ready to curtail our civil liberties. We do not stop to think that curtailing these liberties may in the end bring us a greater danger than the danger we are trying to avert.”

ThinkingWorldGivingTryingMayWarEndsCountryLibertyGreaterRightsDangerReadyIdealsBillsLipsCivil RightsAmendmentsStirringCivil LibertiesBill Of RightsAvertLip Service
Author:Eleanor Roosevelt
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“There is a certain period of the soul-culture when it begins to interfere with some of characters of typical beauty belonging to the bodily frame, the stirring of the intellect wearing down the flesh, and the moral enthusiasm burning its way out to heaven, through the emaciation of the earthen vessel; and there is, in this indication of subduing the mortal by the immortal part, an ideal glory of perhaps a purer and higher range than that of the more perfect material form. We conceive, I think, more nobly of the weak presence of Paul than of, the fair and ruddy countenance of David.”

ThinkingWaySoulCharacterFormCertainCultureHeavenPerfectBeautyMoralMaterialsHigherPeriodsGloryFairsIdealsWeakIntellectFleshEnthusiasmMortalsBurningRangeImmortalBelongingInterfereTypicalVesselIndicationStirringCountenance
Author:John Ruskin
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“I have always secretly felt that what mankind should be in an ideal sense is that mixture of people and races. I really believe in it. I don't think there is anything sacred in the integrity of race, white or black.”

PeopleThinkingShouldBelieveFeltBlackWhiteRaceMankindIntegrityIdealsSacredMixtures
Book:A poetic equation: conversations between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker
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“The hardest thing about being a guy is that women don't accept that you really are just a simple, pathetic, labrador retriever-like creature. That we live in a world were women actually expect you to think thoughtful thoughts, and have real emotions, which we don't have. Having to try to live up to the imaginary ideal that women have of what men are, instead of just being what you are, which is just a pathetic creature, but still.”

ThinkingMenWorldTryingStillsRealGuySimpleEmotionAcceptingCreaturesIdealsHardestThoughtfulImaginaryJust BeingHardest ThingPatheticRetrieversReal EmotionLabradors
Author:Dave Barry
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“America ... holds up its way of life as the ideal for every nation, and seeks to impose its own standards of living - which many people think ridiculously and unwholesomely high - on others, partly of course in the search for markets. If it were openly stated that it was just a search for markets, that would be one thing, but it is not; by a tremendous propaganda campaign this materialistic conception is held up as an ideal, as somehow part of liberty, and above all, as a form of happiness.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayWould BeAmericaFormCoursesNationsLibertyUnited StatesOne ThingStandardsIdealsCampaignsPropagandaConceptionImperialismGlobalizationMaterialisticStandards Of Living
Author:Ann Bridge
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“The genuflection toward 'fairness' is a familiar newsroom piety, in practice the excuse for a good deal of autopilot reporting and lazy thinking but in theory a benign ideal. In Washington, however, a community in which the management of news has become the single overriding preoccupation of the core industry, what 'fairness' has often come to mean is a scrupulous passivity, an agreement to cover the story not as it is occurring but as it is presented, which is to say as it is manufactured.”

ThinkingMeanStoriesCommunityDealsPracticeTheoryIndustryNewsIdealsManagementExcuseCoreFamiliarLazyAgreementFairnessPietyPreoccupationBenignPassivityAutopilotLazy Thinking
Author:Joan Didion
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“Focus on something that has high value to someone else, be really rigorous in making that assessment, because natural human tendency is wishful thinking, so the challenge to entrepreneurs is telling what's the difference between really believing in your ideals and sticking to them as opposed to pursuing some unrealistic dream that doesn't actually have merit, be very rigorous in your self analysis, certainly being extremely tenacious, and just work like hell. Put in 80-100 hours every week. All these things improves the odds of success”

ThinkingBelieveHumansSelfDreamValuesHoursNaturalChallengesDifferencesHellFocusWeekIdealsEntrepreneurTendenciesAnalysisMeritOddsAssessmentWishful ThinkingTenaciousSelf Analysis
Author:Elon Musk
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“I think I am most fond of the unseen part. I mean that the various cultural experiences that I go through, and the behavioral aspects of getting the work done, are just as important as the installation and the photograph. So, for me, the relationship between the two is more about hybridism and the search for an ideal form that I'm never going to arrive at. The installation and the photograph are mere approximations of this ideal.”

ThinkingMeanTwoImportantDoneFormAspectIdealsMerePhotographVariousUnseenWork DoneApproximationInstallation
Book:Sandy Skoglund: reality under siege : a retrospective
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