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.
Samuel Gompers

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

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

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

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

The man who has his millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day.
Samuel Gompers

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.
Samuel Gompers

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

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.
Samuel Gompers

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.
Samuel Gompers


We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more. And we shall never cease to demand more until we have received the results of our labor.
Samuel Gompers

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