Thomas Carlyle Quotes

A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice.

We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.

We know the ideal isn't where the action is.

There's always going to be something. Can't be perfect.

Nobody wants to watch perfection.

But this is life on earth, you can't have everything.

Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

You can't be the perfect member of Congress and the perfect mother 100 percent of the time. And probably, you'd be a pretty annoying person if you were.

If one cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.

Government is the art of the momentarily feasible, of the least bad attainable, and not of the rationally most desirable.

We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.

It is the misfortune of those who are concerned in conducting human affairs that, however pure and capacious their own conceptions may be, they must accommodate themselves to the circumstances with which they are environed and use the instruments that are within their reach.

What I've learned is that life is a balance between idealism and realism.

You've got to understand and accept that nothing in the world is perfect. The sooner you understand that, the better it will be.

Not everything can be perfect.

I always say we're chasing perfection in an imperfect game.

You can't always get the perfect moment. Sometimes, you just have to do the best you can under the circumstances.

People love high ideals, but they got to be about 33-percent plausible

People can live up to high standards, but they can't live up to perfection.

Don't fight a fact, deal with it.

You can have all you can expect and accept.

You have to take people as they are because there are no others.

As I was saying to the landlord only this morning: 'You can't have everything'.

We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.