Realist Quotes

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. (William Arthur Ward)
An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run. View quote
Sydney J. Harris
In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles. View quote
David Ben-Gurion
The child is a realist in every domain of thought, and it is therefore natural that in the moral sphere he should lay more stress on the external, tangible element than on the hidden motive. View quote
Jean Piaget
Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of. View quote
Bertolt Brecht
Why are we born? We're born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we're born and we die? We're born to live. One is a realist if one hopes. View quote
Studs Terkel
The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. View quote
Eric Hoffer
If you describe things as better than they are, you are considered to be a romantic if you describe things as worse than they are, you will be called a realist and if you describe things exactly as they are, you will be thought of as a satirist. View quote
Quentin Crisp
I have a lot of courage. I'm a realist. View quote
Elisabeth Rohm
I am a realist as well as an idealist, and I think that it is incumbent upon those of us in opposition to try to work within what are always arduous circumstances to stretch the limits of the possible. View quote
Todd Gitlin
This may sound trite, but bad things happen to good people, and when you're facing terrorism, natural disaster, you can have every wonderful plan in place, but I am a realist. (Warren Rudman)
So-called "realist" photography does not capture the "what is." Instead, it is preoccupied with what should not be, like the reality of suffering for example. View quote
Jean Baudrillard
I think I'm a realist. Which people who don't like me consider to be pessimism. It isn't pessimism at all. If I was a pessimist I wouldn't get up, I wouldn't shave, I wouldn't watch Batman at 7:30 a. m. Pessimists just don't do that sort of thing. View quote
Morrissey
If I am an agnostic, Calyxa, it's because I'm also a realist. View quote
Robert Charles Wilson
Next comes the realist phase ("After all, from a purely geometrical point of view a cat is only a tube with a door at the top."). View quote
Terry Pratchett
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. View quote
Robertson Davies
Faith has its price. When misfortune strikes the true believer, he assumes he has done something to deserve punishment, but isn't quite certain what. The realist, recognizing that he lives in a Darwinian universe, is simply grateful to have made it to another sunset. View quote
Jack McDevitt
Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is the practical realist. View quote
Martin Luther King Jr.
I am a mixture of idealist and realist. View quote
Roger Moore
You're a cynic," Urgit accused. Silk shook his head. "No, Your Majesty. I'm a realist. View quote
David Eddings
A true architect is not an artist but an optimistic realist. They take a diverse number of stakeholders, extract needs, concerns, and dreams, then create a beautiful yet tangible solution that is loved by the users and the community at large. We create vessels in which life happens. (Cameron Sinclair)
I don't ever want to be a sentimentalist. I prefer to be a realist. I'm not a romantic really. View quote
James Earl Jones
People want a cop-out, listen I'm a realist and I talk about motivation, talk about all the things it takes to be greater or are important to win and people want to use excuses all the time. View quote
Mike Ditka
I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist. And my reality is that we live in a multifaceted, multicultural world. And maybe once we stop labeling ourselves, then maybe everyone else will. View quote
Octavia Spencer
I've never really played everyday people. I've played realist roles, but not mere daily life. There was always something incredible happening to my characters. View quote
Sandrine Bonnaire