Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker expresses envy for those working directly to help a new democracy.
In plain terms
He wishes he could be on the front lines helping a young democracy.
What can you take from it?
Building democracy on the ground is a meaningful and exciting work.

Where it applies

  • foreign policy
  • international development

Putting it to work

  • support democracy
  • engage locally

Questions to consider

  • What makes work meaningful?
  • Who builds history?

Another view

It romanticizes dangerous work without detailing the risks.

More from George W. Bush

  1. The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror -- the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders a…

    Permalink to quote #273
  2. It's viewed as an anti-Russian device. Well, it's not.

    Permalink to quote #275
  3. I hadn't heard that.... I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere, like on gasoline prices.

    Permalink to quote #272

Related quotes

  1. Having fought most of my life against apartheid - and of course my parents were imprisoned during the struggle - I am thrilled by the way South Africa has deve…

    Peter HainPeter Hain quote #1
  2. Dear Reichsfuhrer, among 10's of millions of Jews in Europe, there are, I figure, at least 2-3 millions of men and women who are fit enough to work. Considerin…

    Viktor BrackViktor Brack quote #1
  3. The modern proletarian class doesn't carry out its struggle according to a plan set out in some book or theory; the modern workers' struggle is a part of histo…

    Rosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg quote #2