“Like sailors, we cannot change the weather or the direction of the wind. But we change the direction of our sails.”

—  Bob Rae

Source: The Three Questions - Prosperity and the Public Good (1998), Chapter Five, The Second Question: Charity and Welfare-The Old Debate Is New Again, p. 95

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Like sailors, we cannot change the weather or the direction of the wind. But we change the direction of our sails." by Bob Rae?
Bob Rae photo
Bob Rae 18
Canadian politician 1948

Related quotes

Dolly Parton photo
Jimmy Dean photo
Cyril Connolly photo
António Guterres photo

“Climate change is the defining issue of our time – and we are at a defining moment. We face a direct existential threat.”

António Guterres (1949) Secretary-General of the United Nations

António Guterres, "Secretary-General's remarks on Climate Change" https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2018-09-10/secretary-generals-remarks-climate-change-delivered, 10 September 2018.

Bion of Borysthenes photo
Jodi Picoult photo
Oliver Wendell Holmes photo

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

Josephus Daniels, ambassador to Mexico, sent this quotation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 1, 1936, in a note of New Year greetings, with this comment: "Here is an expression from Holmes which, if it has missed you, is so good you may find a use for it in one of your 'fireside' talks". Reported in Carroll Kilpatrick, ed., Roosevelt and Daniels (1952), p. 159.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

Bryce Courtenay photo
Mahatma Gandhi photo

“[I]t is not true that we shall necessarily progress if our political conditions undergo a change, irrespectively of the manner in which it is brought about. If the means employed are impure, the change will not be in the direction of progress but very likely in the opposite.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

As quoted in Gandhi’s Experiments With Truth: Essential Writings by and about Mahatma Gandhi, Richard L. Johnson (edit), Lexington Books (2006) p. 118. Original source: Forward to volume of Gokhale’s speeches, Gopal Krishna Gokahalenan Vyakhyanao, 1, 1916
1910s

Related topics