Quote

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

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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
Would
Preacher
Chances
Hungry
Average
Saloon
Chance
Friendless
Rather
Saloons
Today
Keeper
Take
Keepers

More quotes by Eugene V. Debs

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We want a system in which the worker shall get what he produces and the capitalist shall produce what he gets.
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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Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.
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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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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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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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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A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed.
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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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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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
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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 class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.
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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When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.
Eugene V. Debs
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I would no more teach children military training than teach them arson, robbery, or assassination.
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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The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.
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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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