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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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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
Life
Civilization
Agitation
Conditions
Stagnation
Progress
Discontent
Born
Caves
Living
Fellows
Stills
Satisfied
Still
Intelligence
Would
Intelligent
Mainspring

More quotes by 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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The master class has always declared the wars the subject class has always fought the battles.
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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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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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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A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed.
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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Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.
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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I would no more teach children military training than teach them arson, robbery, or assassination.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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