43 Paul Wellstone Quotes

Paul Wellstone quotes

1. A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.

2. Above and beyond the question of how to grow the economy there is a legitimate concern about how to grow the quality of our lives.

3. As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.

4. I dare to imagine a country where every child I hold in my hands, are all God's children, regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of whether they're boy or girl, regardless of religion, regardless of rich or poor, that every child I hold in my hands, will have the same chance to reach her full potential or his full potential. That is the goodness of our country. That is the essence of the American dream.

5. I don't think politics has anything to do with left, right, or center. It has to do with trying to do right by people.

6. I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.

7. I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have, and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment. But if you snuff out that spark of learning, it is the cruelest and most shortsighted thing a nation can do. Too many children see that spark of learning snuffed out.

8. I think the prophetic tradition of our faith is that to love God is to love justice.

9. If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them.

10. Never separate the life you live from the words you speak.

11. Our aims in political activism are not, and should not be, to create a perfect utopia. What we seek is more simply to improve the quality of human life while at the same time respecting the natural environment which sustains it: 'Not a heaven on earth but a better earth on earth.' This is not at all a timid agenda, far from it. The work ahead of us is enormous!

12. Our politics are our deepest form of expression: they mirror our past experiences and reflect our dreams and aspirations for the future.

13. People have to hear words that not only sound right but feel right. I think it's in part the economic message, but it's also in part a message about community, about who we are as a nation, about how to live a life in which you don't have to separate the life you live from the words you speak, be that in your relationship with your family, your community, your country or your world. I don't want to give an inch on a 'family values' agenda:

14. Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people.

15. Politics is not predictions and politics is not observations. Politics is what we do. Politics is what we do, politics is what we create, by what we work for, by what we hope for and what we dare to imagine.

16. Sometimes, the only realists are the dreamers. Robert Kennedy once said, 'The future will not belong to those who are content with the present.' I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines. The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better. The future will belong to those, in Eleanor Roosevelt's words, 'who believe in the beauty of their dreams.'

17. The American polity is infected with a serious imbalance of power between elites and masses, a power which is the principal threat to our democracy.

18. The only way to change is to vote. People are responsible.

19. The people of this country, not special interest big money, should be the source of all political power.

20. There is an elementary aspiration which undergirds the humane impulse in our history and our culture and binds us together as political activists. This is a simple, irreducible, indisputable aspiration. It is the 'dream of justice' for a beloved community, in which the level of terror in people's lives is sharply reduced or maybe eliminated. It is the belief that extremes and excesses of inequality must be reduced so that each person is free to fully develop his or her full potential. This is why we take precious time out of our lives and give it to politics.

21. We can remake the world daily.

22. What makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves.

23. What the poor, the weak, and the inarticulate desperately require is power, organization, and a sense of identity and purpose, not rarefied advice of political scientists.

24. When too many Americans don't vote or participate, some see apathy and despair. I see disappointment and even outrage. And I believe that out of this frustration can come hope and action.

1. Let there be no distance between the words you say and the life you live.

2. Why don't we call on the credit card companies to be accountable? They need to be held accountable for their predatory lending practices.

3. Successful organizing is not built on self-interest but rather on dignity and a sense of purpose.

4. Politics is not left, right or center ... It's about improving people's lives.

5. We all do better, when we all do better.

6. There is a major ingredient missing from our perception of how changes are brought about; that ingredient is power.

7. It is the belief that extremes and excesses of inequality must be reduced so that each person is free to fully develop his or her full potential. This is why we take precious time out of our lives and give it to politics.

8. The best kind of politics is when you help people become their own best selves.

9. The first task in teaching is to bring to consciousness what the students already believe by virtue of their personal experiences about themselves and society.

10. There are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy, grassroots organizing and electoral politics.

11. Politics isn't about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives.

12. We must regain our vision and hope and move our country forward on an agenda of peace and justice.

13. If a teacher does not involve himself, his values, his commitments, in the course of discussion, why should the students?

14. Politics is not about power.

15. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning.

16. We must renew democracy itself. We have to fight cynicism and inertia and restore faith in the advancement of our country.

17. I was talking about no nukes, the farm crisis. People said that wasn't stuff that a state auditor was supposed to be talking about. Maybe they were right.

18. Our aims in political activism are not, and should not be, to create a perfect utopia.

19. I do believe that there's going to be a pretty strong consensus for a very strong .. censure resolution.