“To free him from the tyrannies, petty or otherwise, which served to make his existence a slavery.”

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.

No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion.

To make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.

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.

Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.

W.Z. Foster {head of the American Communist Party}, who had no money, went to Moscow and came back and announced that he was building a great secret machine to undermine the American labor movement and turn it over to the Red International, owned by Lenin.

Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.

Workingmen are at the foundation of society.

There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.

No race of barbarians ever existed yet offered up children for money

Show me the country that has no strikes and I’ll show you the country in which there is no liberty.

Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.

No human being is unimportant. My inspiration comes in opening opportunities that all alike may be free to live life to the fullest.

All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Dayis devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.

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

It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests.

Worrying that banning flag desecration would inhibit free speech reveals a misunderstanding of the flag’s fundamental nature.

We have confused the free with the free and easy.

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

A hungry man is not a free man.

Where be bonds to bind the free? All the world was made for me!

Our secret association works in a way that nothing can withstand, and man shall soon be free and happy.

The small businessman is smart; he realizes there’s no free lunch. On the other hand, he knows where to go to get a good inexpensive sandwich.

There were free elections in Bulgaria, where the opposition has just won.