Paul Wellstone Quotes

#1. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#4. The idea of democracy has been stripped of it moral imperatives and come to denote hollowness and hypocrisy.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#7. We need a new kind of citizenship, so that we can see citizens as themselves earning the rank of patriot because of their involvement in their community affairs ... We as a society need to be encouraging people to focus not just on individual wants but on serving the larger community.

Paul Wellstone

#8. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#9. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#10. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#11. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#12. Education and democracy have the same goal: the fullest possible development of human capabilities.

Paul Wellstone

#13. 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.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#15. 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.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#18. There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#20. 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?

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#24. Sometimes, the only realists are the dreamers.

Paul Wellstone

#25. Never separate the life you lead from the words you speak.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#28. 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.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#30. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#31. Politics is not about power.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#34. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#35. Without trying, I'm different.

Paul Wellstone

#36. I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.

Paul Wellstone

#37. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#38. We're not going to have real security until we invest in our children.

Paul Wellstone

#39. The Democratic Party has lost much of it credibility with working class and low-income people. It retards progress toward presenting a genuine alternative.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#41. We can remake the world daily.

Paul Wellstone

#42. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#43. We can and must move U.S. politics forward by means of committed participation.

Paul Wellstone

#44. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#45. Politics is not about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives

Paul Wellstone

#46. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#47. 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.

Paul Wellstone

#48. We all do better when we all do better.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#50. The future belongs to those who are passionate and work hard.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#53. 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.

Paul Wellstone

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

Paul Wellstone

#55. 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.

Paul Wellstone