#ideals

All philosophy is idealism, and there exists no true realism except that of poetry. But poetry and philosophy are only extremes. If one were to say that some people are pure idealists and others very definitely realists, then that remark would be quite true. Stated differently, it means that there as yet exist no wholly cultivated human beings, that there still is no religion.

Relationship between human beings is based on the image-forming, defensive mechanism. In all our relationships each one of us builds an image about the other and these two images have relationship, not the human beings themselves. [...] The actual relationship between two human beings or between many human beings completely ends when there is the formation of images. Relationship based on these images can obviously never bring about peace in the relationship because the images are fictitious and one cannot live in an abstraction. And yet that is what we are all doing: living in ideas, in theories, in symbols, in images which we have created about ourselves and others and which are not realities at all. All our relationships, whether they be with property, ideas or people, are based essentially on this image-forming, and hence there is always conflict.

The expansion of our awareness can sometimes cause our suffering to expand. We can now see more of our reality and we don't like what we're seeing. There are problems not only out in the world, but also inside of us — patterns of behaviour we don't want to acknowledge and terrible feelings we don't want to recognize. We feel far from where we want to be and this distance causes us great frustration.

"The highest exercise of charity is charity towards the uncharitable."

"'Now,' the judge said. 'We can go back to the administration of justice.' 'Is that real justice or the idea of justice?'"

If we want to understand the true nature of any community, then we should observe what its members love. What do they pursue? What do they treasure? What commands their ultimate allegiance? The church is unique in the world. It is the only community on earth bound together by the Triune God’s prior love and the love we return to him in response. Christ is therefore our highest love and ultimate authority. He is the heart of our political identity.

America at 250: A declaration of ideals reset the world – and still resonates today