idealism quotes

   Idealism isthe noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

- Aldous Leonard Huxley
Quoted in his NewYork Herald Tribune obituary, 24 Nov1963.

Whenever one comes to close grips with so-called idealism, as in war time, one is shocked by its rascality.

- H(enry) L(ouis) Mencken
'Minority Report'. Collected in Notebooks (1956).

Practical efficiency is common, and lofty idealism is not uncommon; it is the combination that is necessary, and that combination is rare.

-Theodore Roosevelt
  Theodore Roosevelt: an Autobiography.