What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.
SAMUEL GOMPERSTo make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.
More Samuel Gompers Quotes
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There are such wonderful possibilities in the life of each man and woman!
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Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.
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Time is the most valuable thing on earth: time to think, time to act, time to extend our fraternal relations, time to become better men, time to become better women, time to become better and more independent citizens.
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Show me the country that has no strikes and I’ll show you the country in which there is no liberty.
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You can’t do it unless you organize.
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So long as there is one [person] who seeks employment and cannot find it, the hours of work are too long.
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We will stand by our friends and administer a stinging rebuke to men or parties who are either indifferent, negligent, or hostile, and, wherever opportunity affords, to secure the election of intelligent, honest, earnest trade unionists, with clear, unblemished, paid-up union cards in their possession.
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Do I believe in arbitration? I do. But not in arbitration between the lion and the lamb, in which the lamb is in the morning found inside the lion
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No race of barbarians ever existed yet offered up children for money
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You can’t weigh the soul of a man with a bar of pig-iron.
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So long as we have held fast to voluntary principles and have been actuated and inspired by the spirit of service.
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The right to say the things which convey the new and yet unexpected thoughts, the right to say things, even though they do a wrong.
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No human being is unimportant. My inspiration comes in opening opportunities that all alike may be free to live life to the fullest.
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In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends upon their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy or social morality which in any way lessens initiative is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers.
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It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests.
SAMUEL GOMPERS