Eugene V. Debs Quotes

64 quotes in 1022 categories

• No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.
• It is when you have done your work honestly, when you have contributed your share to the common fund that you begin to live.
• Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the…
• They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at…
• They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That…
• Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. I would not lead you out if…
• I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it.
• We want a system in which the worker shall get what he produces and the capitalist shall produce what he gets.
• The economic owning class is always the political ruling class.
• Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being…
• If I were hungry and friendless today, I would rather take my chances with a saloon-keeper than with the average preacher.
• One glance proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that these unions (railroad craft unions) are exceedingly useful to the corporations; and to the extent…
• In all the history of organized labor, from the earliest times to the present day, no body of union workingmen ever served in a more…
• Speaking of myself, I was made to realize long ago that the old trade union was utterly incompetent to deal successfully with the exploiting corporations…
• As long as this great army of workers is scattered among so many craft unions, it will be impossible for them to unite and act…
• The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long…
• I do not oppose the insane asylum — but I abhor and condemn the cutthroat system that robs man of his reason, drives him to…
• Wherever capitalism appears, in pursuit of its mission of exploitation, there will Socialism, fertilized by misery, watered by tears, and vitalized by agitation be also…
• Why should the railroad employees be parceled out among a score of different organizations? They are all employed in the same service. Their interests are…
• When I rise it will be with the ranks and not from the ranks.

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