Eugene V. Debs Quotes

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

I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything I do not think.

Anybody can be nobody; but it takes a man to be somebody.

I would rather be arrested as a traitor than fight a war for Wall Street.

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.

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.

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

No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.

Riches are the savings of many in the hands of one.

The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.

If I were hungry and friendless today, I would rather take my chances with a saloon-keeper than with the average preacher.

I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.

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

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

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

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

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

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.

Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.

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

The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.