--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: In fact in politics, sometimes the thing…" description: "\"In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never happen actually starts to happen. And there have to be people who hold out for that, and who a..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba7/judith-butler-1374_accepting_in-fact-in-politics-sometimes-the-thing_1666488.jpg" --- # In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never… ![“In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never happen actually starts to happen. And there have to be people who hold out for that, and who accept that they are idealists and that they are operating on principle as opposed to realpolitik.” quote by Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba7/judith-butler-1374_accepting_in-fact-in-politics-sometimes-the-thing_1666488.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba7/judith-butler-1374_accepting_in-fact-in-politics-sometimes-the-thing_1666488.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba7/judith-butler-1374_accepting_in-fact-in-politics-sometimes-the-thing_1666488.jpg) > “In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never happen actually starts to happen. And there have to be people who hold out for that, and who accept that they are idealists and that they are operating on principle as opposed to realpolitik.” [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Idealism can drive change even when reality seems impossible, requiring steadfast commitment to principles over pragmatic politics. **In simple terms:** Principles can spark change despite odds. Key Takeaway Hold fast to ideals. Themes idealism politics principles Mood thoughtful determined Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - activism - policy advocacy - grassroots organizing Key Concepts realpolitik ethical commitment social movements Questions to Reflect On - How can idealists influence realpolitik? - What risks arise from ignoring pragmatism? A Different Perspective Idealism may clash with practical constraints. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Accept Idealists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accept-idealists-814447/) [Accepting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accepting/) [Facts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/facts/) [Happens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happens/) [Idealist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/idealist/) [Idealists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/idealists/) [Idealists Operating](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/idealists-operating-814448/) [Opposed Realpolitik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/opposed-realpolitik-814446/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Politics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/politics/) [Principles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/principles/) [Realpolitik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/realpolitik/) [Sometimes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sometimes/) [Trump](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trump/) ## Related quotes > [Teachers are by nature idealists, and they believe anything can be learned.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-wiggs/teachers-are-by-nature-idealists-and-they-believe-anything-can-be/) [Susan Wiggs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-wiggs/) > [These Utopian idealists like the Clintons who think they really do have the answers. They think they're following the best minds of their generation,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-savage/these-utopian-idealists-like-the-clintons-who-think-they-really-do/) [Michael Savage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-savage/) > [Finally, the president added, 'The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic...'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bob-woodward/finally-the-president-added-the-american-people-are-idealists-but/) [Bob Woodward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bob-woodward/) > [Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But question it we must.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-jackson/questioning-growth-is-deemed-to-be-the-act-of-lunatics-idealists-and/) [Tim Jackson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tim-jackson/) > [All idealists imagine that the causes they serve are fundamentally better than any other causes in the world, and they refuse to believe that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/all-idealists-imagine-that-the-causes-they-serve-are-fundamentally/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-college-idealists-who-fill-the-ranks-of-the-environmental/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I've never understood the division between so-called realists and so-called idealists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hillary-clinton/i-ve-never-understood-the-division-between-so-called-realists-and-so/) [Hillary Clinton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hillary-clinton/) > [The universalists, the idealists, the Utopians all aim too high. They give promises of an unattainable paradise, and by doing so they deceive mankind.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-hitler/the-universalists-the-idealists-the-utopians-all-aim-too-high-they/) [Adolf Hitler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-hitler/) > [God save me from idealists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-butcher/god-save-me-from-idealists/) [Jim Butcher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-butcher/) > [“Idealists are either blind or clowns; because they think it is possible to have a beautiful world with asshole creatures like humans.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-f-moonzajer/idealists-are-either-blind-or-clowns-because-they-think-it-is/) [M.F. Moonzajer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/m-f-moonzajer/) > [Anyone too undisciplined, too self-righteous or too self-centered to live in the world as it is has a tendency to idealize a world which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-james-duncan/anyone-too-undisciplined-too-self-righteous-or-too-self-centered-to/) [David James Duncan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-james-duncan/) > [Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alain-de-botton/cynics-are-beneath-it-all-only-idealists-with-awkwardly-high-standards/) [Alain de Botton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alain-de-botton/) > [It is always easy to divide the world into idealists and power-oriented people. The idealists are presumed to be the noble people, and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-a-kissinger/it-is-always-easy-to-divide-the-world-into-idealists-and-power/) [Henry A. Kissinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-a-kissinger/) > [Neither idealists nor materialists are right; we must take both idea and expression.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-vivekananda/neither-idealists-nor-materialists-are-right-we-must-take-both-idea/) [Swami Vivekananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-vivekananda/) > [To think great thoughts you must be heroes as well as idealists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oliver-wendell-holmes-jr/to-think-great-thoughts-you-must-be-heroes-as-well-as-idealists/) [Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oliver-wendell-holmes-jr/) ## More by Judith Butler > [I don't think we have to have a personal relation to a life lost to understand that something terrible has taken place, especially in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/i-don-t-think-we-have-to-have-a-personal-relation-to-a-life-lost-to/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [We need a legal and political understanding of the right of the refugee, whereby no solution for one group produces a new class of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/we-need-a-legal-and-political-understanding-of-the-right-of-the/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [When we say gender is performed, we usually mean that we've taken on a role or we're acting in some way and that our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/when-we-say-gender-is-performed-we-usually-mean-that-we-ve-taken-on-a/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [Cameras help to minimize collateral damage, and very often, without a camera a missile cannot fire. Certainly, without a camera a drone can't function,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/cameras-help-to-minimize-collateral-damage-and-very-often-without-a/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [I would say that I'm a feminist theorist before I'm a queer theorist or a gay and lesbian theorist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/i-would-say-that-i-m-a-feminist-theorist-before-i-m-a-queer-theorist/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [Very often, if you just get the question: "Well, are you a Zionist?" if you say no, it's assumed that you want the destruction…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/very-often-if-you-just-get-the-question-well-are-you-a-zionist-if-you/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [Sexual harassment law is very important. But I think it would be a mistake if the sexual harassment law movement is the only way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/sexual-harassment-law-is-very-important-but-i-think-it-would-be-a/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [Genocide is not a legitimate option. It's not ok to decide that an entire population has no right to live in the world. No…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/genocide-is-not-a-legitimate-option-it-s-not-ok-to-decide-that-an/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [“Let's face it. We're undone by each other. And if we're not, we're missing something. If this seems so clearly the case with grief,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/let-s-face-it-we-re-undone-by-each-other-and-if-we-re-not-we-re/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [The pleasurable part of public mourning can also lead to a sense of self-sanctification that justifies in advance any war effort, whether or not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/the-pleasurable-part-of-public-mourning-can-also-lead-to-a-sense-of/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [“There is no life without the conditions of life that variably sustain life, and those conditions are pervasively social, establishing not the discrete ontology…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/there-is-no-life-without-the-conditions-of-life-that-variably-sustain/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [“That the power regimes of heterosexism and phallogocentrism seek to augment themselves through a constant repetition of their logic, their metaphysic, and their naturalized…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/that-the-power-regimes-of-heterosexism-and-phallogocentrism-seek-to/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [I think that public grieving is a good thing. People need to be grieved; loss needs to be acknowledged publicly, because it helps to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/i-think-that-public-grieving-is-a-good-thing-people-need-to-be/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [Maybe we need to start with the rethinking of what is "west" and what is "non-west." It seems to me that there are any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/maybe-we-need-to-start-with-the-rethinking-of-what-is-west-and-what/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) > [It will not do to say that international law is the enemy of the Jewish people, since the Jewish people surely did not as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-butler/it-will-not-do-to-say-that-international-law-is-the-enemy-of-the/) [Judith Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) [Explore all 248 Judith Butler quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-butler/) ## More Accepting quotes > [From Augustine down, theologians have tried to compel people to accept their special interpretation of the Scripture, and the tortures of the inquisition, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matilda-joslyn-gage/from-augustine-down-theologians-have-tried-to-compel-people-to-accept/) [Matilda Joslyn Gage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matilda-joslyn-gage/) > [Laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing! It is the jester! A voice from the Void, to cheer poor Cicero! I accept your gift, dearest Night Mother.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcus-tullius-cicero/laughing-laughing-laughing-laughing-it-is-the-jester-a-voice-from-the/) [Marcus Tullius Cicero](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcus-tullius-cicero/) > [This duo inside of me causes the perfect opportunity to live and learn twice as fast as those who choose to accept simplicity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tupac-shakur/this-duo-inside-of-me-causes-the-perfect-opportunity-to-live-and/) [Tupac Shakur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tupac-shakur/) > [There is something about the South that accepts the supernatural. If you don't accept it and you're having a conversation with someone who does,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alice-englert/there-is-something-about-the-south-that-accepts-the-supernatural-if/) [Alice Englert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alice-englert/) > [We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ann-voskamp/we-only-enter-into-the-full-life-if-our-faith-gives-thanks-because/) [Ann Voskamp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ann-voskamp/) > [Don't be bitter. Everybody suffers. If you can accept your suffering then you will understand other people better. Be grateful for pain. Love life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-colbert/don-t-be-bitter-everybody-suffers-if-you-can-accept-your-suffering/) [Stephen Colbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-colbert/) > [It takes an unusually philosophic mind to accept that all one’s suffering might be to no end, really, in the larger scheme of things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/it-takes-an-unusually-philosophic-mind-to-accept-that-all-one-s/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/no-nation-being-under-another-nation-can-accept-gifts-and-kick-at-the/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Even with clothing naked animals, there were people who wanted to send in money. A woman in Santa Barbara, California, sent a $40,000 check.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-abel/even-with-clothing-naked-animals-there-were-people-who-wanted-to-send/) [Alan Abel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-abel/) > [Society understands the architecture of academia and knows there are relevant qualifications in different fields, and the media accepts the idea of specialisations and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jay-griffiths/society-understands-the-architecture-of-academia-and-knows-there-are/) [Jay Griffiths](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jay-griffiths/) > [Whatever your conscious mind assumes and believes to be true, your subconscious mind will accept and bring to pass. Believe in good fortune, divine…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-murphy/whatever-your-conscious-mind-assumes-and-believes-to-be-true-your/) [Joseph Murphy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-murphy/) > [Losing someone is easy, but accepting it is hard.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/losing-someone-is-easy-but-accepting-it-is-hard/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [… and so he tried to accept the ache in his heart as what Dr. Larch would call the common symptoms of normal life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-irving/and-so-he-tried-to-accept-the-ache-in-his-heart-as-what-dr-larch/) [John Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-irving/) > [I think what was special about 'Music by Prudence' was the classic story of the title subject's life path - from being an outcast…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-ross-williams/i-think-what-was-special-about-music-by-prudence-was-the-classic/) [Roger Ross Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-ross-williams/) > [As my films are born at the moment when they are reflected into another person's mind and memories, there are no misconceptions. I totally…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pirjo-honkasalo/as-my-films-are-born-at-the-moment-when-they-are-reflected-into/) [Pirjo Honkasalo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pirjo-honkasalo/) [Browse all 6,788 Accepting quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accepting/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never happen actually starts to happen. 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