Gaylord Nelson Quotes

In all your acts, self interest shall be cast away. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people, and have always in view not only the present, but of the coming generations.

Why we should put ourselves out of our way to do anything for posterity, for what has posterity ever done for us?

It's time to put country ahead of party. It's time to put the next generation ahead of the next election.

I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially my own affairs; I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them.

A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.

In everyday things the law of sacrifice takes the form of positive duty.

And it is this sense that some of us have to contribute to the culture, to the society in ways that may hurt financially, so what? We do it because we are born to do it, we feel we have no other choice and so be it.

Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.

Serve a cause greater than your self interest.

The necessary thing for anyone to be happy and contented as long as he lives is working for the ones who will come after him rather than working for himself... One can reach the true delight and happiness in the life only by working for the existence, honor, and happiness of the future generations.

The only reward in a public life is public progress. You stand back and say, 'What did I get out of it?' You look around, and the place is better, and that's it.

Legacy is not what I did for myself. It's what I'm doing for the next generation.

We have to think beyond ourselves.

I stand here today - in the shadow of my parents' and grandparents' accomplishments - because of their willingness to sacrifice and look to my future.

I am not here forever, so I wanted to do the best for the coming generation.

Morality is standing by your friends, standing by people when it's not popular. It's sacrificing things on a big international stage, and sometimes it's sacrificing your basic comforts.

Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.

The act of willingly subtracting from one's own limited store of the good and the agreeable for the sake of adding to that of others reflects the understanding that individual happiness needs a base broader than the mere satisfaction of selfish passions. From there, it is not such a large step to the realization that respecting the susceptibilities and rights of others is as important as defending one's own susceptibilities and rights if civilized society is to be safeguarded.

One must care about a world one will not see.

Learn how to grow out of yourself and into the world of others: Plant a shade tree under which you know you will never sit. Set some goals that may benefit your children or an orphanage or the employees of your company or future generations or your own city, fifty years from now.

Our German language has a word which in a magnificent way denotes conduct based on this spirit: doing one's duty [Pflichterfüllung]-which means serving the community instead of contenting oneself. We have a word for the basic disposition which underlies conduct of this kind in contrast to egoism and selfishness-idealism. By 'idealism' we mean only the ability of the individual to sacrifice himself for the whole, for his fellow men.

My life is not my own business.

I really look at my life before kids and after kids and before I was more - not narcissistic - but I was definitely more selfish. I didn't have the same concerns as I do now. I've always been political, but you've gotta be engaged. You can't be apathetic anymore because what's at stake is bigger than yourself, it's your kids.

Hence it is that old men do plant young trees, the fruit whereof another age shall take.

Service is selflessness--the opposite of the lifestyle that we see so much of in America today. The things that entertain us don't often lift us up, or show us as the people we can rise up to become. The people who appear in this book--and others who did things I can't talk about--are my role models. They quietly live out the idea expressed in the Bible (John 15:13): "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.