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Quote by Ralph Nader

“One time when I was nine or ten years old, I came home from school...and my dad said to me, 'Well, Ralph, what did you learn in school today? Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?' So, I'm saying to myself, 'What's the difference between the two?'.”

Author

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader, born on February 27, 1934, is an American consumer rights activist. He is renowned for his advocacy on consumer protection, particularly in areas such as automotive safety, drug safety, and food hygiene. Nader's activities and publications have prompted the enactment of numerous consumer protection laws. more

“One day at Princeton, I noticed there were dead birds on the pavement between the campus buildings, where very large trees were. It turns out it was DDT. At the time, in the early '50s, no one thought DDT was dangerous to anybody but insects. I went down to the Daily Princetonian, the college paper, and tried to persuade them to do a story. They said, "Naw, there's nothing wrong." But that taught me a very important lesson. One, that newspaper people can get very jaded. Second, that you might know something, like an expert chemistry professor, you are not going to apply what you know.”

People Important Tree Dangerous Building College One Day Bird Chemistry

Author:Ralph Nader

“I always say there's no ticket of admission for active citizenship. Anybody can get through that gate, and anybody can ask that basic question that gets the ball rolling.”

Gates Citizenship

Author:Ralph Nader

“When I went to Harvard Law School I became interested in the connection between legal standards for safety and automobile engineering design. At that time, it was all blamed on a "nut behind the wheel," so-called, the driver. But I knew that the vehicle had a great deal to do with that because I had come across some Air Force-sponsored studies at medical schools. The Air Force found they were losing more men on the highways than in the Korean War.”

Men War School Study Design Losing Safety Medical Vehicle Automobile Korean Air Force Law School Medical School

Author:Ralph Nader

“I finally came to Washington. That's when something happened. The Motor Vehicle Act of 1966, even though it was irregularly enforced - sometimes very little under Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan - it saved over 200,000 lives, millions of injuries prevented or reduced in severity.”

Sometimes Injury Vehicle Motor

Author:Ralph Nader