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

—Eugene V. Debs

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About Eugene V. Debs

Portrait of Eugene V. Debs

Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist activist and trade unionist. He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States; through...

More quotations from Eugene V. Debs

Getting a living under capitalism . . . is so precarious, so uncertain, fraught with such pain and struggle that the wonder is not that so many people become vicious and criminal, but that so many remain in docile submission to such a tyrannous and debasing condition.

—Eugene V. Debs

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

—Eugene V. Debs

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More quotations tagged with “better”

This was the dawn of plastic eating in America. . . . We doted on Velveeta. Spam. Canned ravioli. Instant puddings. Instant anything. The farther a thing was from the texture, flavor, and terrifying unpredictability of real food, the better.

—Shirley Abbott

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Love's about finding the one person who makes your heart complete. Who makes you a better person than you ever dreamed you could be.

—Julia Quinn in The Viscount Who Loved Me

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I believe that having something to hope for—even if it's just a better tomorrow—is the most powerful drug on this planet.

—Jodi Picoult in The Storyteller

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I'm tired of waiting. It's time for us to find our own voice, to do our own organizing, to push forward on reform, to push forward on issues of economic justice, and to make the United States of America, this good country, even better.

—Paul Wellstone

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It's better to go into the world half-cocked than not to go into the world at all.

—James Hillman

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