Quotes By Paul Wellstone

The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better.

Successful organizing is based on the recognition that people get organized because they, too, have a vision.

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.

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

Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning.

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

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

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

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.

I'm short, I'm Jewish and I'm a liberal.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Politics is not about power.

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.

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.

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

I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.

Without trying, I'm different.

I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines.

I emphasize self-esteem, self-confidence, and dignity, not as an ideal, but as a real test of community organization. Without leadership development, community organizations do not have staying power.

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

Sometimes, the only realists are the dreamers.

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.

The kind of national goal we ought to be thinking about is way beyond national product - it is how do we as a nation help our children be the best kinds of people they could possibly be?

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.

We can remake the world daily.

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