John L. Lewis

“The business of a militant minority is to be militant.”

“He who tooteth not his own horn, the same shall not be tooted.”

“No tin-hat brigade of goose-stepping saboteurs or stooges is going to destroy the labor movement in this country.”

“I have pleaded your case not in the tones of a feeble mendicant asking for alms, but in the thundering voice of the captain of a mighty host, demanding the rights to which free men are entitled.”

“The workers of the nation were tired of waiting for corporate industry to right its wrongs.”

“Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them.”

“A man that has a mine, a factory, or a business that can't pay a living wage, ought to get out of the business.”

“The United Mine Workers of America will not be a party to the degradation of the standards of life for the American people.”

“There is no right without a remedy; and there is no wrong without a penalty.”

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.”

“The deadliest sin of all is the possessing of a surplus.”

“The union is the best investment for the working man.”

“I have never faltered in my work and I have never betrayed a trust.”