Eugene V. Debs Quotes

The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.

I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it.

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.

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets.

The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.

Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.

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.

No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.

Anybody can be nobody; but it takes a man to be somebody.

If I were hungry and friendless today, I would rather take my chances with a saloon-keeper than with the average preacher.

The truth has always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue, the exploiter, the robber. So the truth must be supressed.

The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.

Riches are the savings of many in the hands of one.

You have got to unite in the same labor union and in the same political party and strike and vote together, and the hour you do that, the world is yours.

Nothing is more humiliating than to have to beg for work, and a system in which any man has to beg for work stands condemned. No man can defend it.

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.

We want a system in which the worker shall get what he produces and the capitalist shall produce what he gets.

The rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million.

The economic owning class is always the political ruling class.

Some go to prison for stealing, and others for believing that a better system can be provided and maintained than one that makes it necessary for a man to steal in order to live.

Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.

The American people can have anything they want; the trouble is, they don't know what they want.

Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization.

You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder.

When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.

I would no more teach children military training than teach them arson, robbery, or assassination.

When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.

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.

I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything I do not think.

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.

It is when you have done your work honestly, when you have contributed your share to the common fund that you begin to live.

I would rather be arrested as a traitor than fight a war for Wall Street.

I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.

From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it.

Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.

The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.

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.

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.

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.

The guns on the walls that surround the prison accurately, though unwittingly, index the true character of the penitentiary in our day.

The prison, above all others, should be the most human of institutions.

The protection the government owes you and fails to provide, you are morally bound to provide for yourselves.

The people can have anything they want, the only problem is they do not want anything.

A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed.

The workers are the saviors of society the redeemers of the race.

When great changes occur in history when great principles are involved as a rule the majority are wrong.

The American people can have anything they want the trouble is they don't know what they want.

In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the Pe