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Workingmen of the country ... toil for a pittance at the pleasure of their masters and are bludgeoned, jailed or shot when they protest — this is the central, controlling, vital issue of the hour, and neither of the old party platforms has a word or even a hint about it.

— Eugene V. Debs Outlook for Socialism in the United States (1900)

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More quotes by Eugene V. Debs

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

The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech (1918)

Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

Federal Court statement (1918)

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

The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.

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.

Walls and Bars (1927)

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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

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When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

Robert Frost A Boy's Will (1913)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

Jacques Ellul The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Eugene V. Debs (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.