A foolishly idealistic person who fights for noble causes without considering practical reality; from Don Quixote.
From Spanish 'Don Quixote,' a fictional character created by Cervantes in 1605. The character's name likely derives from a place name, and the character became so famous that his name became a common word.
Don Quixote attacking windmills is probably the most famous scene in literature, and it's so powerful that 'quixotic' became the universal word for fighting hopeless battles. What's wild is that Cervantes wrote it to mock books about knights, but instead created the most important novel ever written.
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