QuoteProject
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.
Paul Wellstone
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Politics should focus on enhancing the quality of life for individuals rather than on power struggles or material gain.

Paul Wellstone's quote emphasizes that the essence of politics lies in its ability to create positive change in people's lives. It criticizes the notion that politics is merely a game of power, wealth, or victory, asserting instead that true political engagement should be rooted in serving and improving the community.

Themes

PoliticsImprovementPeopleLivesPowerMoney

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be referenced in a speech advocating for social policy reform.

More from Paul Wellstone

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 WellstoneRead
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 WellstoneRead
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.
Paul WellstoneRead
I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines
Paul WellstoneRead
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 WellstoneRead
Our politics are our deepest form of expression: they mirror our past experiences and reflect our dreams and aspirations for the future.
Paul WellstoneRead

Similar quotes

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Winston ChurchillRead
Why is it that right-wing bastards always stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity, while liberals fall out among themselves?
Yevgeny YevtushenkoRead
Iran has to live up to its international obligations. . . . The president has said that our patience is not unlimited.
Barack ObamaRead
I debated in high school! If you told things that weren't true or just made things out of whole cloth, you were penalized. It's too bad they don't apply the same standards to presidential candidates as they do to high school students.
Mark HamillRead
When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it's normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers.
Richard N. HaassRead
I may find Saddam Hussein's regime abhorrent - any normal person would - but the survival of it is in his hands.
Tony BlairRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.