With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed.
Interpretation
Despite their imperfections, trade unions have significantly contributed to the betterment of society.
Clarence Darrow highlights the vital role that trade unions have played in advancing social justice and improving the lives of workers. He acknowledges that while they may have faults, their overall impact on humanity has been profound, making them one of the most important collective organizations in history. This quote prompts us to recognize contributions to workers' rights and social conditions brought about by collective action.
In practice
In a speech at a labor rally, one could emphasize how trade unions, despite their flaws, have significantly impacted workers' rights.
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.
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.
In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.
We live not, in reality, on the summit of a solid earth but at the bottom of an ocean of air
Bridge-players tell me that there must be some money on the game 'or else people won't take it seriously'. Apparently it's like that. Your bid - for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity - will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high, until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world.
Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.
In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.
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