An Ideal (n.) projected onto the other sex commits one to nothing — it only stokes fantastic demands; were it of one's own sex, one might discover one does not quite come up to it, which would be uncomfortable but salutary.
Ideal (n.) all too easily become the sacrosanct disguise of barriers we raise against the rising flood of the unconscious when we feel ourselves slipping.
An Ideal (n.) upheld at any cost automatically represses all that does not fit — no one can think and feel only the good, the true and the beautiful all the time.
An Ideal (n.) is a collective representation that releases instinctual forces the conscious will cannot reach; the most effective ideals — mother country, fatherland — are thin allegories of an archetype.
Ideal (n.) seen from the shadow-side are not beacons on mountain peaks but taskmasters and gaolers — a metaphysical police.
An Ideal (n.) is only a signpost, never the goal — so its unattainability is no argument against it.
An Ideal (n.) that floats before most people makes them believe they are what they are not, blinded by mass suggestion; this rule holds true of everyone except the person to whom it is applied.