With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Interpretation
Trade unions have significantly contributed to humanity's progress despite their imperfections.
Clarence Darrow emphasizes the vital role that trade unions play in advancing societal values and improving the lives of individuals. He acknowledges that while trade unions may have their shortcomings, their contributions to honesty, education, and character development in people surpass those of any other organizational group throughout history. This perspective invites us to appreciate the positive influences of collective action and solidarity in improving society.
In practice
In a speech advocating for workers' rights, one might use this quote to highlight the positive impacts of unions.
Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?
Chase after the truth like all hell.
No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. She will have nothing from him who will not give her all. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes have burned into the victim's heart, he will know no other smile but hers.
The trouble with law is lawyers.
The time will come when all people will view with horror light way in which society and its courts of law now take human life; and when that time comes, the way will be clear to device some better method of dealing with poverty and ignorance and their frequent byproducts, which we call crime.
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
The first thing to realize in meditation is that there is no authority, that the mind must be completely free to examine, to observe, to learn. And so there is no following, no accepting, no obedience.
So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.
The stress laid on upward social mobility in the United States has tended to obscure the fact that there can be more than one kind of mobility and more than one direction in which it can go. There can be ethical mobility as well as financial, and it can go down as well as up.
We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.
Prayer is nothing but the breathing that out before the Lord, that was first breathed into us by the Spirit of the Lord.
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