Quote

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.

Eugene V. Debs

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Eugene V. Debs
Age: 70 †
Born: 1855
Born: November 5
Died: 1926
Died: October 20
Peace Activist
Political Leader
Politician
Trade Unionist
Terre Haute
Indiana
Eugene Victor Debs
Eugene Debs
Convict Number 9653
inmate number 9653
9653
Convict No. 9653
Work
Social
Fortune
Wretched
Men
Money
Dollars
Socialist
Political
Absolutely
Inequality
Order
Millions
Hundreds
Amass
Doe
Days
Socialism
Feudalism
Women
Existence
Opposition
Hoarding
Nothing
Possible
Useful
Opposing
Enough
Lives
Secure
Barely

More quotes by Eugene V. Debs

Image
Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
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.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
If I were hungry and friendless today, I would rather take my chances with a saloon-keeper than with the average preacher.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
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.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
In the very progress of society, the prison has in the very nature of things undergone some improvement, but there are vast stretches yet to be covered before the prison becomes, if it ever does, an institution for the reclamation and rehabilitation of erring and unfortunate men and women.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
I may not be able to say all I think but I am not going to say anything I do not think.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
The master class has always declared the wars the subject class has always fought the battles.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
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.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
The rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other's throats, when we have stopped enslaving each other, we will stand together, hands clasped, and be friends. We will be comrades, we will be brothers, and we will begin the march to the grandest civilization the human race has ever known.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
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.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
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.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
The prison, above all others, should be the most human of institutions.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
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.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
I do not want you to follow me or anyone else if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
It is when you have done your work honestly, when you have contributed your share to the common fund that you begin to live.
Eugene V. Debs
Image
A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed.
Eugene V. Debs