Quotes by Daniel De Leon

A being in a bonnet is not therefore a woman, a being with a beard is not therefore a man, nor yet is a wolf in sheepskin a lamb.

A merry Christmas should be a Christmas that finds all men capable of producing their own merriment, instead of having it ladled out to them, to a chorus of self-praise and gratulation on the part of the givers.

Capitalism attacks and destroys all the finer sentiments of the human heart; it ruthlessly sweeps away old traditions and ideas opposed to its progress, and it exploits and corrupts those things once held sacred.

Capitalism is a fraud within a fraud. Proclaiming itself individualistic, it organizes collectively in order to promote the aims of a few. Socialism, on the other hand, is genuineness itself. Believing that industry is collective in organization and operation, it proclaims itself in favor of collective ownership and control.

Each man has an equal social right to multiply his power of motion by all the social factors of civilization. Private property in any of these factors is inconsistent with this fundamental right; it must, obviously, prove a source of economic despotism and industrial slavery.

He who stands with his face to the East in the morning will have the sun before him. If he does not change his posture, the Earth in the meantime having changed its, he will have the sun no longer before him, but behind.

Make no mistake: The organization of the working class must be both economic and political. The capitalist is organized upon both lines. You must attack him on both.

Of the many symptoms of the times, this capitalist breaking loose with their own gods is the most certain symptom of impending revolution. The capitalist ship is cutting loose from its moorings. Set adrift, what will become of that water-logged craft?

Poverty breeds lack of self-reliance.

Socialism is practical, in the best sense of the term; a living, vital force of inestimable value to society.

The day is nigh, when all the other political trees in our national political forest will lie prone, beaten down by the gale of a people's needs, while the mammoth tree of Socialism will remain the sole mistress, affording under its ample branches and rich foliage the protection long needed by a long-suffering people.

The moment religion organizes into a specific creed it becomes a political force. From Moses down to Brigham Young, every creed-founder has been a State-builder.

There is no equality before the law possible but between men economically free. Men are today economically the subject of the capitalist. Equality before the law is, under such circumstances, a hollow mockery.