Paul Wellstone Quotes
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.
There are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy, grassroots organizing and electoral politics.
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 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.
The people of this country, not special interest big money, should be the source of all political power.
The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
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.
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.
The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better
The idea of democracy has been stripped of it moral imperatives and come to denote hollowness and hypocrisy.
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 isn't about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives.
Education and democracy have the same goal: the fullest possible development of human capabilities.
We must regain our vision and hope and move our country forward on an agenda of peace and justice.
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.
Successful organizing is based on the recognition that people get organized because they, too, have a vision.
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 a teacher does not involve himself, his values, his commitments, in the course of discussion, why should the students?
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.
I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines
Our politics are our deepest form of expression: they mirror our past experiences and reflect our dreams and aspirations for the future.
The Democratic Party has lost much of it credibility with working class and low-income people. It retards progress toward presenting a genuine alternative.
Why don't we call on the credit card companies to be accountable? They need to be held accountable for their predatory lending practices.
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.
What makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves.
There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
Our aims in political activism are not, and should not be, to create a perfect utopia.
There is a major ingredient missing from our perception of how changes are brought about; that ingredient is power.
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.
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 problem with party politics is that people get involved every two or four years and that is it. In the meantime, the legislature and Minnesota politics are on a separate track.
Successful organizing is not built on self-interest but rather on dignity and a sense of purpose.
I do believe that there's going to be a pretty strong consensus for a very strong .. censure resolution.
We must renew democracy itself. We have to fight cynicism and inertia and restore faith in the advancement of our country.
