68+ Eugene V. Debs Quotes On Education, Eugene V Debs And Constitution

Eugene V. Debs was an American politician who ran five times as a candidate for President of the United States on the Socialist Party ticket. He was a prominent union leader, and a vocal advocate for the rights of working people. He was also a staunch critic of World War I and was arrested and jailed for his anti-war activism. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Eugene V. Debs on education, eugene v debs, constitution.

Top 10 Eugene V. Debs Quotes

1. The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.
2. 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.
3. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets.
4. I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.
5. While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
6. No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.
7. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.
8. If I were hungry and friendless today, I would rather take my chances with a saloon-keeper than with the average preacher.
9. 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.
10. 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 Short Quotes

• The economic owning class is always the political ruling class.
• Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.
• I would no more teach children military training than teach them arson, robbery, or assassination.
• Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization.
• I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything I do not think.
• When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.
• The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.
• The prison, above all others, should be the most human of institutions.
• The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
• Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.

Eugene V. Debs Quotes About World

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

Labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun. — Eugene V. Debs

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

Eugene V. Debs Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One glance proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that these unions (railroad craft unions) are exceedingly useful to the corporations; and to the extent that they serve the economic and political purposes of the corporations, they are the foes – and not the friends – of the working class. — Eugene V. Debs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anybody can be nobody; but it takes a man to be somebody. — 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. That is too much, even for a joke. ... Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. — 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

Life Lessons by Eugene V. Debs

1. Eugene V. Debs taught the importance of standing up for what you believe in, no matter the cost. He was willing to sacrifice his own freedom to fight for the rights of workers and the poor.
2. He also showed the power of peaceful protest and civil disobedience, proving that one person can make a difference.
3. Finally, Debs showed the importance of staying true to your values, even in the face of adversity.