“Any discussion between idealist and realist would never end.”

“Being an idealist is not being a simpleton; without idealists there would be no optimism and without optimism there would be no courage to achieve advances that so-called realists would have you believe could never come to fruition.”

“The debacle in Iraq has reinforced the realist dictum, disparaged by idealists in the 1990s, that the legacies of geography, history and culture really do set limits on what can be accomplished in any given place. But the experience in the Balkans reinforced an idealist dictum that is equally true: One should always work near the limits of what is possible rather than cynically give up on any place. In this decade idealists went too far; in the previous one, it was realists who did not go far enough.”

“Finally, the president added, 'The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic...”

“The difference between an idealist and a fanatic is the idealist is only 90% sure he's right.”

“Someone said that revolutions are begun by idealists and ended by the scoundrels who destroy the idealists.”