Norman Thomas
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Norman Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was a long-time leader of the Socialist Party in the United States, and a six-time candidate for President.
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[edit] Sourced
- After I asked him [a student] what he meant, he replied that freedom consisted of the unimpeded right to get rich, to use his ability, no matter what the cost to others, to win advancement. No decent society can tolerate that definition.
- "A Legacy for the Young from Norman Thomas", Life Magazine, Mar 14, 1969
[edit] Attributed
- The struggle against demagoguery scarcely fits the St George-against-the-dragon myth. Our democratic St George goes out rather reluctantly with armor awry. The struggle is confused; our knight wins by no clean thrust of lance or sword, but the dragon somehow poops out, and decent democracy is victor.
- Attributed without source in Senator Joe McCarthy, by Richard Halworth Rovere (p. 270)
[edit] Misattributed
- The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.
- Reagan biographer Lou Cannon noted that this was a suspect quotation, and that he could find no evidence of it. Thomas did say that both major political parties had borrowed items from the Socialist Party platform.
- Cannon, Lou. Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power. New York: PublicAffairs Books, 2003. ISBN 1-586-48030-8 (p. 125).
