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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

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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
Anyone
Promised
Business
Capitalist
Wilderness
Else
Lead
Right
Follow
Would
Stay
Land
Looking
Moses

More quotes by Eugene V. Debs

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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
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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.
Eugene V. Debs
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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
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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.
Eugene V. Debs
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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
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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
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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.
Eugene V. Debs
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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.
Eugene V. Debs
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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.
Eugene V. Debs
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The people can have anything they want, the only problem is they do not want anything.
Eugene V. Debs
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Anybody can be nobody but it takes a man to be somebody.
Eugene V. Debs
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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
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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.
Eugene V. Debs
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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.
Eugene V. Debs
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The truth has always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue, the exploiter, the robber. So the truth must be supressed.
Eugene V. Debs
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Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.
Eugene V. Debs
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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
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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
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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
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Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.
Eugene V. Debs