Eugene Debs on Human Kinship

Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living human beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest person on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

–Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the court upon being convicted of violating the Sedition Act, September 18, 1918