Samuel Gompers

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

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

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

The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.

The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers... It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.

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

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.