Why do we have ideals? First, we hope that by having an ideal, we shall be able to get rid of, alter, modify or change the fact. I am violent, and I use the ideal of non-violence to help me get rid of my violence. Now look at what has happened! The fact is I am violent, and the ideal is not a fact at all, it is verbal, an idea; and with that idea I hope I can get rid of my violence. The ideal is created because I want to escape from the fact, and so I have created a contradiction. Whereas, if I look at the fact, the fact that I am violent, I can deal with that fact. Either I like violence, or I don’t like it. And as most people love violence, they keep it. And if it is a fact and you like it, it is all right; you keep it, be violent and talk about peace and all the rest of it, but know that, by doing this, you are deceiving others and yourself. But if you don’t like it, why have the ideal? If you don't like it, you can deal with it now.

From Collected Works Vol. 15

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What matters is not the ideal, but the fact and your capacity to face the fact. You cannot face the fact of your anger, your violence, as long as you have an ideal, because the ideal is fictitious, fallacious; it has no reality. To understand your violence, you must give your whole attention to it, and you cannot give your whole attention to it if you have an ideal. Idealism is merely one of the habits that we have – ‘He is a noble man, he has ideals and conforms to them’ – you know all the nonsense we talk. The simple fact is that we are violent, and it is only when we look at our violence without justification or condemnation that we can go into it. The moment one’s mind ceases to justify or condemn violence, it is already free to examine the structure of violence.

From Collected Works, Vol. 11

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To suppress anger by the exertion of will is to transfer anger to a different level, giving it a different name, but it is still part of violence. To be free from violence, which is not the cultivation of non-violence, there must be the understanding of desire. If you go into anger very deeply, not just brush it aside, what is involved? Why is one angry? Because one is hurt, someone has said an unkind thing; and when someone says a flattering thing, you are pleased. Why are you hurt? Self-importance, is it not? And why is there self-importance? Because one has an idea, a symbol of oneself, an image of oneself, what one should be, what one is or what one should not be. Why does one create an image about oneself? Because one has never studied what one is, actually. We think we should be this or that, the ideal, the hero, the example. What awakens anger is that our ideal, the idea we have of ourselves, is attacked. And our idea about ourselves is our escape from the fact of what we are.

From What Are You Doing With Your Life?

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One of the most common expressions of violence is anger. When my wife or sister is attacked, I say I am righteously angry; when my country is attacked, my ideas, my principles, my way of life, I am righteously angry. I am also angry when my habits or my petty opinions are attacked. When you tread on my toes or insult me, I get angry. If you run away with my wife and I get jealous, that jealousy is called righteous because I think she is my property. And all this anger is morally justified, and to kill for my country is also justified. So when we are talking about anger, which is a part of violence, do we look at anger in terms of righteous and unrighteous anger according to our own inclinations and environmental drive, or do we see only anger? Is there righteous anger ever, or is there only anger?

From Total Freedom

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