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

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

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

— Eugene V. Debs

I know that the Kaiser incarnates all there is of brute force and of murder. And yet I would not, if I had the power, kill the Kaiser. I would do to him what Thomas Paine wanted to do to the king of England. He said, "Destroy the king, but save the man.

— Eugene V. Debs

I left that church with rich and royal hatred of the priest as a person, and a loathing for the church as an institution, and I vowed that I would never go inside a church again.[Eugene V. Debs, describing his teenage reaction to a hellfire lecture by a priest]

— Eugene V. Debs

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 PE

— Eugene V. Debs

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.", June 16, 1918)

— Eugene V. Debs

Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.

— 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

Sooner or later every war of trade becomes a war of blood.

— Eugene V. Debs