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
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
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
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
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
The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better. – Paul Wellstone
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
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
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
Our aims in political activism are not, and should not be, to create a perfect utopia. – Paul Wellstone
Education and democracy have the same goal: the fullest possible development of human capabilities. – Paul Wellstone
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
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
The idea of democracy has been stripped of it moral imperatives and come to denote hollowness and hypocrisy. – Paul Wellstone
There are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy, grassroots organizing and electoral politics. – Paul Wellstone
I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines. – Paul Wellstone
What makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves. – Paul Wellstone
Politics isn’t about big money or power games; it’s about the improvement of people’s lives. – Paul Wellstone
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
Successful organizing is based on the recognition that people get organized because they, too, have a vision. – Paul Wellstone
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
