Debs Quotes & Sayings

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

The truth has always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue, the exploiter, the robber. So the truth must be ruthlessly supressed. — Eugene V. Debs

I don't want you to follow me or anyone else. If you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of the capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into this promised land if I could because if I could lead you in, someone else could lead you out. — Eugene V. Debs

The prison, above all others, should be the most human of institutions. — Eugene V. Debs

No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people. — Eugene V. Debs

As long as this great army of workers is scattered among so many craft unions, it will be impossible for them to unite and act in harmony together. Craft unionism is the negation of solidarity. The more unions you have, the less unity. — Eugene V. Debs

They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. This is too much, even for a joke. But it is not a subject for levity; it is an exceedingly serious matter. — Eugene V. Debs

You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder. — Eugene V. Debs

Arabelle," Debs was saying. "Arabelle, please listen to me." Arabelle was not listening, and I didn't think my sister's vocal tone of combined anger and authority was well calculated to win over anyone - especially not someone who looked like she had been sent over from a casting office to play the part of a cleaning woman with no green card. — Jeff Lindsay

What can Labor do for itself? The answer is not difficult. Labor can organize, it can unify; it can consolidate its forces. This done, it can demand and command. — Eugene V. Debs

If you go to the city of Washington, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of congress, and mis-representatives of the masses claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad that I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks. — Eugene V. Debs

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. — Eugene V. Debs

Beware of capitalism's politicians and preachers! They are the lineal descendants of the hypocrites of old who all down the ages have guarded the flock in the name of patriotism and religion and secured the choicest provender and the snuggest booths for themselves by turning the sheep over to the ravages of the wolves. — Eugene V. Debs

It launched one worker, Eugene Debs, into a lifetime of activism for labor unions and socialism. Debs was arrested for supporting the strike. Two years later he wrote: 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 for civilization. The time has come to regenerate [renew] society - we are on the eve of a universal change. Like — Howard Zinn

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

Whatever," I said. "The point is, if it's a child small enough to throw, then she lost so much blood here she has to be dead." "She's eighteen years old," Debs said. "Almost nineteen." "Then assuming she's average size, I don't think we want to try to catch somebody who could throw her that hard. If you shoot him, he might get very annoyed and pull off your arms." Deborah — Jeff Lindsay

I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of the plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to obey any command to fight from the ruling class, but I will not wait to be commanded to fight for the working class. I am opposed to every war but one; I am for that war with heart and soul, and that is the world-wide war of social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary, even to the barricades. — Eugene V. Debs

The most heroic word in all languages is revolution. — Eugene V. Debs

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

I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. — Eugene V. Debs

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

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

Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least. — Eugene V. Debs

Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the "patriots," while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims-they are the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this fight. — Eugene V. Debs

Anybody can be nobody, but it takes a man to be somebody. — Eugene V. Debs

A privately owned world can never be a free world and a society based upon warring classes cannot stand. — Eugene V. Debs

The protection the government owes you and fails to provide, you are morally bound to provide for yourselves ... — Eugene V. Debs

Why should the railroad employees be parceled out among a score of different organizations? They are all employed in the same service. Their interests are mutual. They ought to be able to act together as one. But they divide according to craft and calling, and if you were to propose today to unite them that they might actually do something to advance their collective and individual interests as workers, you would be opposed by every grand officer of these organizations. — Eugene V. Debs

As long as he owns your tools he owns your job, and if he owns your job he is the master of your fate. You are in no sense a free man. You are subject to his interest and to his will. He decides whether you shall work or not. Therefore, he decides whether you shall live or die. And in that humiliating position any one who tries to persuade you that you are a free man is guilty of insulting your intelligence. — Eugene V. Debs

Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth. — Eugene V. Debs

The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race. — Eugene V. Debs

He must have had this Wall Street gentry in mind, or at least their prototypes, for in every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the people. — Eugene V. Debs

The greedy, profit-seeking exploiter cannot see beyond the end of his nose. He can see a chance for an "opening"; he is cunning enough to know what graft is and where it is, and how it can be secured, but vision he has none-not the slightest. He knows nothing of the great throbbing world that spreads out in all directions. He has no capacity for literature; no appreciation of art; no soul for beauty. That is the penalty the parasites pay for the violation of the laws of life. — Eugene V. Debs

Privately owned industry and production for individual profit are no longer compatible with social progress and have ceased to work out to humane and civilized ends. — Eugene V. Debs

The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose - especially their lives. — Eugene V. Debs

The traffic inched along as slowly as ever, but nobody really seemed to mind. I wondered if I should have read my horoscope - perhaps that would explain what was going on. It could well be that somewhere in Miami really knowledgeable people - druids, perhaps - were nodding their heads and murmuring, "Ahhh, Jupiter is in a retrograde moon of Saturn," and pouring another cup of herb tea while they lounged around in Birkenstocks. Or maybe it was a group of the vampires Debs was chasing - was it called a flock? Perhaps if enough of them sharpened their teeth a new age of harmony would dawn for us all. Or at least for Dr. Lonoff, the dentist. I — Jeff Lindsay

Jackie gave a low gurgling laugh that made my toes curl and beamed at me. "Thanks," she said. "Sergeant Morgan - your sister - we worked on it this weekend. At Bennie's." Bennie's was a cop bar, a place where off-duty police officers hung out - and sometimes stopped in for a quick snort while on duty. The clientele was not known to be friendly to non-cops who wandered in. If Deborah had taken Jackie to Bennie's, they had clearly bonded even more than I'd realized. "It's a really good place for background," Jackie said. "I have to send the writers there to see it." She winked at Deborah. "We did tequila shots. She's not so tough with a couple of drinks under her belt." Debs snorted, but didn't say anything. — Jeff Lindsay

The American people can have anything they want; the trouble is, they don't know what they want. — Eugene V. Debs

Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. He has not come; he never will come. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. — Eugene V. Debs

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. — Eugene V. Debs

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

FOR A VERY LONG MOMENT WE ALL STOOD IN A FROZEN tableau of hostile indecision. Debs and Recht stared at each other, Deke breathed through his mouth, and I tried to decide whether assisting the fallen woman was technically within my jurisdiction as a blood-spatter analyst. And then there was a clatter at the front door and I heard a minor commotion behind me. "Shit," a male voice called out, quite clearly. "Shit, shit, shit." It was impossible to argue with the general sentiment, but nevertheless I turned around to see if I could gather some specifics. A middle-aged man hurried toward us. He was tall and soft-looking and had close-cropped gray hair and a matching beard. He slid to one knee beside Mrs. Aldovar and picked up her hand. "Hey, Emily? Honey?" he said as he patted her hand. "Come on, Em." I — Jeff Lindsay

Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun. — Eugene V. Debs

I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it. — Eugene V. Debs

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

Private appropriation of the Earth's surface, the natural resources, and the means of life is nothing less a crime than a crime against humanity, but the comparative few who are beneficiaries of this iniquitous social arrangement, far from being viewed as criminals meriting punishment, are the exalted rulers of society, and the people they exploit gladly render them homage and obeisance. — Eugene V. Debs

Some go to prison for stealing, and others for believing that a better system can be provided and maintained than one that makes it necessary for a man to steal in order to live. — Eugene V. Debs

Riches are the savings of many in the hands of one. — Eugene V. Debs

Debs stood in the rain and watched him go, which I am sure she intended to make Wilkins nervous enough to leap from the car and confess, but considering the weather it struck me as excessive zeal. I got into the car and waited for her. — Jeff Lindsay

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

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

Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation. — Eugene V. Debs

A former locomotive man, Eugene Debs ran for president of the United States four times, the fourth time in 1920, when he was in prison. He said, "As long as there is a lower class, I'm in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I'm of it. As long as there's a soul in prison, I am not free." Some platform. — Kurt Vonnegut

To stir the masses, to appeal to their higher, better selves, to set them thinking for themselves, and to hold ever before them the ideal of mutual kindness and good will, based upon mutual interests, is to render real service to the cause of humanity. — Eugene V. Debs

We want a system in which the worker shall get what he produces and the capitalist shall produce what he gets. — Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs has always been one of my heroes. — Clarence Darrow

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

I am guilty of believing that the human race can be humanized and enriched in every spiritual inference through the saner and more beneficent processes of peaceful persuasion applied to material problems rather than through wars, riots and bloodshed. — Eugene V. Debs

The press and the pulpit have in every age and every nation been on the side of the exploiting class and the ruling class. — Eugene V. Debs

I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. — Eugene V. Debs

I left that church with rich and royal hatred of the priest as a person, and a loathing for the church as an institution, and I vowed that I would never go inside a church again.
[Eugene V. Debs, describing his teenage reaction to a hellfire lecture by a priest] — Eugene V. Debs

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

Aramaic has no vowels. So MLK spells Moloch." "Or milk," Deborah said. "Really, Debs, if you think our killer would tattoo milk on his neck, you need a nap. — Jeff Lindsay

We even had dessert, which seemed to me to be pushing the distract-them-with-food ploy a little far, particularly since neither Deborah nor I was at all distracted. But it was quite good food, so it would have been barbaric of me to complain. Of course, Deborah had worked very hard her whole life to become barbaric, so when the waiter placed an enormous chocolate thing in front of Chutsky, who turned to Debs with two forks and said, "Well . . ." she took the opportunity to fling a spoon into the center of the table. — Jeff Lindsay

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

I looked at my sister, so tired and yet so happy, and I admit I felt a little envious. And the whole thing still seemed unreal and incomplete to me, and I couldn't really believe it had happened without me. It was as if I had put only one word in a crossword puzzle and someone else finished it when I turned my back. Even more embarrassing, I actually felt a little bit guilty that I hadn't been there, even though I wasn't invited. Debs had been in danger without me, and that felt wrong. Completely stupid and irrational, not at all like me, but there it was. — Jeff Lindsay

Dexter,' Debs said, jerking her head at me. 'Get some smelling salts or something. You and Deke help her up.'
( ... ) Deke looked at me anxiously, reminding me very much of a large and handsome dog who needs a stick to fetch. 'Hey, you got some of that smelling stuff?' he said.
Apparently it had become universally accepted that Dexter was the Eternal Keeper of the Smelling Salts.
I had no idea where that baffling canard had come from, but in truth, I was completely without.
Luckily, Mrs Aldovar apparently was not interested in sniffing anything. — Jeff Lindsay

The guns on the walls that surround the prison accurately, though unwittingly, index the true character of the penitentiary in our day. — Eugene V. Debs

I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it. — Eugene V. Debs

Eugene Debs entered jail a moderate Unionist and emerged a Socialist. — H.W. Brands

It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it. — Eugene V. Debs

When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. — Eugene V. Debs

Twice in his life Eugene Victor Debs took the long leap to the Ultima Thule of prison, passing beyond the realm of the acceptable into the nonacceptable, from respectability into the criminal community of the monster who was an enemy to the people. — Marguerite Young

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

Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation. — Eugene V. Debs

Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death. — Eugene V. Debs

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth; I am a citizen of the world. — Eugene V. Debs

From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it. — Eugene V. Debs

The people can have anything they want, the only problem is they do not want anything. — Eugene V. Debs

A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed. — Eugene V. Debs

I would rather be arrested as a traitor than fight a war for Wall Street. — Eugene V. Debs

Red Carpet has a nice package abstraction layer that allows us to support RPMs and DEBs transparently. — Nat Friedman

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

They look for a victim to chivy, and howl him down, and finally lynch him in a sheer storm of sexual frenzy which they honestly imagine to be moral indignation, patriotic passion or some equally allowable emotion, it may be an innocent Negro, a Jew like Leo Frank, a harmless half-witted German; a Christ-like idealist of the type of Debs, an enthusiastic reformer like Emma Goldman. — Aleister Crowley

Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. — Eugene V. Debs

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

Only the very ignorant and foolish believe that a president who has surrounded himself with Wall Street darlings as cabinet ministers has any serious designs on the trusts. — Eugene V. Debs

This is no help," Debs said. "If it's not her blood in there, then ... who the hell flings somebody else's blood on the wall?" "A kidnapper," Special Agent Recht said. "Trying to cover his tracks." Deborah turned and looked at her, and the expression on her face was truly wonderful to see. With just a few rearranged facial muscles and one small raised eyebrow, Debs managed to say, How is it possible that someone this stupid can tie her own shoes and walk among us? — Jeff Lindsay

I would no more teach children military training than teach them arson, robbery, or assassination. — Eugene V. Debs

While there is a lower class, I am in it." - Eugene Debs — Leonard Richardson

The rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million. — Eugene V. Debs

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

Speaking of myself, I was made to realize long ago that the old trade union was utterly incompetent to deal successfully with the exploiting corporations in this struggle. I was made to see that in craft unionism the capitalist class have it within their power to keep the workers divided, to use one part of them to conquer and crush another part of them. Indeed, I was made to see that the old form of unionism separates the workers and keeps them helpless at the mercy of their masters. — Eugene V. Debs

In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.
(Canton, OH, Anti-War Speech, June 16, 1918) — Eugene V. Debs

Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created. — Eugene V. Debs

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

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

{Letter from Debbs to Eva Ingersoll, husband of Robert Ingersoll, just after the news of Robert's death}

We were inexpressibly shocked to hear of the sudden death of your dear husband and our best loved friend. Most tenderly do we sympathize with you, and all of yours in your great bereavement... Gifted with the rarest genius, in beautiful alliance with his heroism, his kindness and boundless love, he made the name of Ingersoll immortal.

To me, he was an older brother and as I loved him living, so will I cherish his sweet memory forever. — Eugene V. Debs

The economic owning class is always the political ruling class. — Eugene V. Debs