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 WellstoneWhen 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 WellstoneEducation and democracy have the same goal: the fullest possible development of human capabilities.
Paul WellstoneI 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 WellstonePolitics 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 WellstoneThere are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy, grassroots organizing and electoral politics.
Paul WellstoneOur aims in political activism are not, and should not be, to create a perfect utopia.
Paul Wellstone...how can we live in the richest, most privileged country in the world, at the peak of its economic performance, and still hear the Republicans, and too many Democrats, that we cannot afford to provide a good education for every child, that we cannot afford to provide health security for all our citizens?
Paul WellstoneWhy don't we call on the credit card companies to be accountable? They need to be held accountable for their predatory lending practices.
Paul WellstoneOur politics are our deepest form of expression: they mirror our past experiences and reflect our dreams and aspirations for the future.
Paul WellstoneThe 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 WellstoneA 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 WellstoneWhat makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves.
Paul WellstoneThe future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better
Paul WellstoneThe 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.
Paul WellstoneIf a teacher does not involve himself, his values, his commitments, in the course of discussion, why should the students?
Paul WellstoneWe must renew democracy itself. We have to fight cynicism and inertia and restore faith in the advancement of our country.
Paul WellstonePolitics 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.
Paul WellstoneAbove 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 WellstoneI think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines
Paul WellstoneThe 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 WellstoneSuccessful organizing is not built on self-interest but rather on dignity and a sense of purpose.
Paul WellstoneThere 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.
Paul WellstoneOur 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!
Paul WellstoneThere is a major ingredient missing from our perception of how changes are brought about; that ingredient is power.
Paul WellstoneI 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.
Paul WellstoneThe idea of democracy has been stripped of it moral imperatives and come to denote hollowness and hypocrisy.
Paul WellstoneI 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 WellstoneI 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 WellstoneThe 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 WellstoneSuccessful organizing is based on the recognition that people get organized because they, too, have a vision.
Paul WellstoneWe must regain our vision and hope and move our country forward on an agenda of peace and justice.
Paul Wellstone