Eugene V. Debs
I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.Collection: Patriotism
It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
The most heroic word in all languages is revolution.
Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least.
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.
Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.
I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.Collection: Money
The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.Collection: Party
I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it.Collection: Choices
The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose - especially their lives.Collection: War
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.Collection: Years
The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.Collection: Government
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 higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death?Collection: Brother
Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.Collection: Progress
Private appropriation of the Earth’s surface, the natural resources, and the means of life is nothing less a crime than a crime against humanity, but the comparative few who are beneficiaries of this iniquitous social arrangement, far from being viewed as criminals meriting punishment, are the exalted rulers of society, and the people they exploit gladly render them homage and obeisance.Collection: Mean
What can Labor do for itself? The answer is not difficult. Labor can organize, it can unify; it can consolidate its forces. This done, it can demand and command.Collection: Done
I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of the plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to obey any command to fight from the ruling class, but I will not wait to be commanded to fight for the working class. I am opposed to every war but one; I am for that war with heart and soul, and that is the world-wide war of social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary, even to the barricades.Collection: War
If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and misrepresentatives of the masses - you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad that I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.Collection: Glowing
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 is too much, even for a joke. ... Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.Collection: Freedom
The truth has always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue, the exploiter, the robber. So the truth must be supressed.Collection: Rogues
When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.Collection: Solidarity
The economic owning class is always the political ruling class.Collection: Class
I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.Collection: Humanity
We want a system in which the worker shall get what he produces and the capitalist shall produce what he gets.Collection: Want
Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.Collection: Earth
Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.Collection: Criminals
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 could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves.Collection: Freedom
Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.Collection: Thug
As a rule, large capitalists are Republicans and small capitalists are Democrats, but workingmen must remember that they are all capitalists, and that the many small ones, like the fewer large ones, are all politically supporting their class interests, and this is always and everywhere the capitalist class.Collection: Class
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 found, unfurling its class-struggle banner and proclaiming its mission of emancipation.Collection: Struggle
I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it.Collection: Land
I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets.Collection: Jail
Thousands of years ago the question was asked: "Am I my brother's keeper?" That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.Collection: Brother
The prison, above all others, should be the most human of institutions.Collection: Prison
You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder.Collection: Needs
It is when you have done your work honestly, when you have contributed your share to the common fund that you begin to live.Collection: Helping Others
Labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.Collection: Labour Movement
I do not oppose the insane asylum - but I abhor and condemn the cutthroat system that robs man of his reason, drives him to insanity and makes the lunatic asylum an indispensable adjunct to every civilized community.Collection: Men
The protection the government owes you and fails to provide, you are morally bound to provide for yourselves.Collection: Government
Do not worry over the charge of treason to your masters, but be concerned about the treason that involves yourselves. Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.Collection: Truth
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 mutual. They ought to be able to act together as one. But they divide according to craft and calling, and if you were to propose today to unite them that they might actually do something to advance their collective and individual interests as workers, you would be opposed by every grand officer of these organizations.Collection: Organization
The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.Collection: Work
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 in this struggle. I was made to see that in craft unionism the capitalist class have it within their power to keep the workers divided, to use one part of them to conquer and crush another part of them. Indeed, I was made to see that the old form of unionism separates the workers and keeps them helpless at the mercy of their masters.Collection: Crush
A man should take to himself no discomfort from an opinion expressed or implied by his adversary, but it is difficult, and oftentimes humiliating to attempt to justify the kindness of one's friends.Collection: Kindness
From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it.Collection: Feet
The general public knows practically nothing about the prison and appears to be little concerned about how it is managed and how prisoners are treated.Collection: People
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 humiliating and debasing role than that in which the railway unions appear at this very hour before the American people and the world.Collection: People
If the people would but analyze the human equation of a prison they might better account for the crimes that are visited upon them in cities, towns, and hamlets, ofttimes by men who graduated with an education and equipment for just that sort of retributive service from some penal institution.Collection: Men
The people can have anything they want, the only problem is they do not want anything.Collection: People