Jacqueline Novogratz Quotes

They [philosophers] conceive of men, not as they are, but as they themselves would like them to be

To be candid, some people have given positive thinking a bad name. I can't stand to hear some gung-ho individual say that with positive thinking you can just do 'anything.' If you think about that one for a moment, you recognize the absurdity of it.

Those of us who are romantic idealists …

When you're young, you envision happiness in such an idealized way.

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

When they come downstairs from their Ivory Towers, idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter.

You can't be idealistic in this world and not be crazy.

What we need most, is not so much to realize the ideal as to idealize the real.

I guess I don't have a grandiose view of the world in general, and I never believe it when someone else has a grandiose moment.

People told me, 'You talk about Europe like it's Heaven. It's not Heaven.

One cannot afford to be a realist.

You're a cynic," Urgit accused. Silk shook his head. "No, Your Majesty. I'm a realist.

Great things are accomplished by men who are not conscious of the impotence of man. Such insensitiveness is precious.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

I went around in my teens and early 20s thinking that life was a con trick. I had managed to grow up believing in all sorts of romantic ideas about hard work and justice and truth, and it seemed the real world was much more complicated and shaded than I wanted to believe.

It's some weird idea to think that you've always got to say everything is great and perfect.

The strange thing about people considering me upbeat is that I'm really not.

My dream was to play for Chelsea - maybe I was bit naive.

I'm not Pollyanna. Nobody has a magic wand.

I don't want any gimmicks. The fact that people think that Whack is a gimmick is so crazy.

I don't believe in 'happy ever after' at all as a concept.

Criticism is beyond your control and is a collective group of people deciding things about you that may or may not be true. Some critics look for more when there's no need to. They have a dotto-dot picture of me they are intent on filling in.

I actually think I'm still quite childishly optimistic in a certain way, which is maybe why I find life quite shocking.

I've got a lot of experience under my belt, but I still have a very naive and idealistic outlook on life.

Back when I was an idealistic 18-year-old on my way to Chicago, I might have believed that being on the side of virtue would guarantee a good outcome. These many years later, I know better.