Quote

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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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
World
Freedom
Cannot
Waited
Back
Moses
Nothing
Bondage
Long
Workers
Mind
Minds
Make
Lead
Would
Liberty

More quotes by Eugene V. Debs

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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 their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.
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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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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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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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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Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.
Eugene V. Debs
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A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed.
Eugene V. Debs
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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
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The prison, above all others, should be the most human of institutions.
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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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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The people can have anything they want, the only problem is they do not want anything.
Eugene V. Debs
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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
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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
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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 enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society - we are on the eve of universal change.
Eugene V. Debs
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From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it.
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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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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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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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