Pragmatic Quotes

• Idealism without pragmatism is impotent. Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless. The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Keys, Idealism, Pragmatism

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• Progress must not become progressivism, where success is measured only by achieving pragmatic results.

  Mal Fletcher

  Progress, Achieve, Results

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• Dream in a pragmatic way.

  Aldous Huxley

  Dream, Way

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• Knowing yourself, knowing where you want to get, combining those things gives you the pragmatic steps.

  John Amaechi

  Knowing, Giving, Want

  Interview with Max Miller, bigthink.com. October 7, 2010.

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• The worst crimes are not committed by evil degenerates, but by decent and intelligent people taking 'pragmatic' decisions.

  Colin Wilson

  Intelligent, People, Evil

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• It was wrong to be too pragmatic, to judge people solely by results; it was more humane to judge by intentions.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  People, Judging, Judgment

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1991). “Cancer Ward: A Novel”, p.303, Macmillan

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• Between the creative, open and spontaneous approach to life, and the highly disciplined, pragmatic approach, there's a doorway, if you can find it - and it leads to immortality.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Creative, Doorways

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• For me, couture is the kingdom of imagination, creativity and experimentation, and this is how I approach it. I do, however, remain pragmatic and realistic.

  Giorgio Armani

  Creativity, Imagination, Kingdoms

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• I'm generally a very pragmatic person: that which works, works.

  Linus Torvalds

  Economy, Persons

  "Linux's Linus Torvalds Interview". Interview with Hiroo Yamagata, www.drdobbs.com. January 1, 2002.

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• I'm very pragmatic in that I know there are very few greats in anything. I got lucky just to have gotten two of the real great filmmakers very early on. Better to have had them than to not have had them. I've been really fortunate. That's the key relationship on a movie: the director and the actor. Of course, you can't compare the experiences. When you're in your early 20s, you're a very different person. It was a very exciting time, and my whole world was changing. Now I'm looking back, and hoping I can still offer something. Still do good work.

  Malcolm McDowell

  Real, Different, Lucky

  Source: film.avclub.com

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• I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity.

  I. M. Pei

  Art, Believe, Foundation

  I. M. Pei (1983). “The Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1983: Presented to Ieoh Ming Pei”

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• I'm optimistic because I'm pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.

  Ahmed Ben Bella

  Military, Islamic, Optimistic

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• In any architecture, there is an equity between the pragmatic function and the symbolic function.

  Michael Graves

  Architecture, Function, Equity

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• I grew up with Scientology - my parents at one point were clerical. It's a pragmatic philosophy, not merely a belief system. Yeah, it's had media exposure because certain luminaries do Scientology, but millions of people do it who are not celebrities. It's not a threat or some cult.

  Giovanni Ribisi

  Philosophy, Media, People

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• I think it's a good thing that we can have relatively non-partisan political conversations because I don't think that my premier necessarily should agree with everything the federal NDP says. I don't think she should disagree with everything the federal Conservatives say. I think that Albertans and Canadians as a whole, as I always say, are looking for pragmatic politicians with pragmatic solutions to their problems, and they want the best ideas to move forward, regardless of who has that idea.

  Naheed Nenshi

  Moving, Thinking, Political

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• I am pragmatic. That which works, works, and theory can go screw itself. However, my pragmatism also extends to maintainability, which is why I also want it done well.

  Linus Torvalds

  Done, Want, Theory

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• It is a fact that the US defence budget is larger than the defence budgets of all other countries taken together. This is why I understand the US President when he says that his NATO allies should take over part of this burden. It is a pragmatic and understandable approach.

  Vladimir Putin

  Country, Taken, President

  Source: en.kremlin.ru

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• However pragmatic you are, it is very demanding being a new parent.

  Robert Winston

  Parent, New Parents

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• Happiness is equilibrium. Shift your weight. Equilibrium is pragmatic. You have to get everything into proportion. You compensate, rebalance yourself so that you maintain your angle to your world. When the world shifts, you shift.

  Tom Stoppard

  Balance, World, Weight

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• American politics are normally a result of pragmatic and not philosophical reasoning. No one in Washington has said we now prefer multilateralism.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Philosophical, Results, Said

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• For me taking a pragmatic decision when it comes to art is almost an oxymoron. The reason I first picked up a pen and wrote a story had nothing pragmatic in it.

  Etgar Keret

  Art, Decision, Stories

  "Suddenly: An Interview With Etgar Keret". Interview with Courtney Becks, www.raintaxi.com. Summer 2012.

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• In pragmatic terms, our challenge is less to save the earth from ourselves and more to save ourselves from an earth that, if pushed too far, has ample power to rock, burn, and shake us off completely.

  Naomi Klein

  Rocks, Challenges, Earth

  Naomi Klein (2014). “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate”, p.285, Simon and Schuster

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• Art could be said to be a symbol of the universe, being linked with that absolute spiritual truth which is hidden from us in our positivistic, pragmatic activities.

  Andrei Tarkovsky

  Spiritual, Art, Said

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• Who succeeds in forming and leading a Great Group? He or she is almost always a pragmatic dreamer. They are people who get things done, but they are people with immortal longings. Often, they are scientifically minded people with poetry in their souls.

  Warren G. Bennis

  People, Soul, Dreamer

  Warren G. Bennis, Patricia Ward Biederman (2009). “The Essential Bennis”, p.149, John Wiley & Sons

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• The whole quality of your life depends on your state of mind. There are very high states of mind that very few people experience. They are also quite pragmatic and practical and they make you more efficient at living and working in the world.

  Frederick Lenz

  Inspirational, Buddhism, People

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