Bill Jones > Bill's Quotes

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#1

“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 Debs

tags: aristocracy, capitalism, feudalism, inequality, justice, labor, poverty, wealth

521 likes

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#2

“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 Victor Debs

tags: authoritarianism, deception, exploitation, fundamentalism, nationalism, oppression, patriotism, religion, totalitarianism, tyranny

502 likes

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#3

“I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth; I am a citizen of the world.”
― Eugene Debs, Writings of Eugene V. Debs

tags: anti-militarism, anti-nationalism, compassion, cosmopolitan, humanity, universal-love

263 likes

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#4

“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.”
― Eugene V. Debs

tags: debs, eugene, politics, socialist

245 likes

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#5

“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

121 likes

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#6

“Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization.”
― Eugene V. Debs

68 likes

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#7

“A privately owned world can never be a free world and a society based upon warring classes cannot stand.”
― Eugene V. Debs, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

52 likes

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#8

“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, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

60 likes

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#9

“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

45 likes

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#10

“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

tags: chances, help, needy, poor, poverty, preacher

44 likes

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#11

“Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.”
― Eugene Debs

41 likes

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#12

“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, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

44 likes

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#13

“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, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

38 likes

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#14

“patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
― Eugene V. Debs, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

33 likes

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#15

“. . . 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

tags: exploitation, press, pulpit

31 likes

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#16

“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, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

26 likes

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#17

“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, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

21 likes

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#18

“Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.”
― Eugene V. Debs

tags: agitation, change, dissent, progress

24 likes

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#19

“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, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

20 likes

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#20

“The name of Robert G. Ingersoll is in the pantheon of the world. More than any other man who ever lived he destroyed religious superstition. He was the Shakespeare of oratory -- the greatest that the world has ever known. Ingersoll lived and died far in advance of his time. He wrought nobly for the transformation of this world into a habitable globe; and long after the last echo of destruction has been silenced, his name will be loved and honored, and his fame will shine resplendent, for his immortality is fixed and glorious.

{Debbs had this much respect for Ingersoll, despite their radically different political views. This statement was made at Ingersoll's funeral}”
― Eugene Victor Debs

tags: admiration, greatness, honor, ingersoll, inspirational, legendary, love, oratory, pantheon, praise, religious-superstition, respect, robert-g-ingersoll, robert-green-ingersoll, robert-ingersoll, shakespeare, superstition, william-shakespeare

14 likes

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#21

“I am not a Labor Leader; 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. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition; as it is now the capitalists use your heads and your hands.”
― Eugene V. Debs

tags: capitalism, democracy, labor, socialism

24 likes

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#22

“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, Works of Eugene Victor Debs

15 likes

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capitalism
feudalism
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