Frances Perkins Quotes

• The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.

  Frances Perkins

  What Matters, Government, People

  Frances Perkins, Joseph Paul St. Sure (1965). “Two views of American labor”

  112 Copy quote

• The door might not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time, and I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats.

  Frances Perkins

  Doors, Long, Might

  77 Copy quote

• Feminism means revolution and I am a revolutionist.

  Frances Perkins

  Mean, Feminist, Feminism

  87 Copy quote

• I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen.

  Frances Perkins

  Common, Forgotten, Millions

  79 Copy quote

• Being a woman has only bothered me in climbing trees.

  Frances Perkins

  Climbing, Hiking, Tree

  92 Copy quote

• Our idea of what constitutes social good has advanced with the procession of the ages, from those desperate times when just to keep body and soul together was an achievement, to the great present when "good" includes an agreeable, stable civilization accessible to all, the opportunity of each to develop his particular genius and the privilege of mutual usefulness.

  Frances Perkins

  Opportunity, Civilization, Ideas

  Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”

  65 Copy quote

• The accusation that I am a woman is incontrovertible.

  Frances Perkins

  Women, Accusation

  55 Copy quote

• Most of man's problems upon this planet, in the long history of the race, have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.

  Frances Perkins

  Courage, Men, Race

  Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”

  53 Copy quote

• It's only when we're relaxed that the thing way down deep in all of us - call it the subconscious mind, the spirit, what you will - has a chance to well up and tell us how we shall go.

  Frances Perkins

  Mind, Way, Spirit

  41 Copy quote

• Out of our first century of national life we evolved the ethical principle that it was not right or just that an honest and industrious man should live and die in misery. He was entitled to some degree of sympathy and security. Our conscience declared against the honest workman's becoming a pauper, but our eyes told us that he very often did.

  Frances Perkins

  Eye, Men, Ethical Principles

  Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”

  64 Copy quote

• It is not the nature of man, as I see it, ever to be quite satisfied with what he has in life.... Contentment tends to breed laxity, but a healthy discontent keeps us alert to the changing needs of our time.

  Frances Perkins

  Men, Healthy, Needs

  Frances Perkins, Joseph Paul St. Sure (1965). “Two views of American labor”

  49 Copy quote

• This leads to a question - if a great many people are for a certain project, is it necessarily right? If the vast majority is for it, is it even more certainly right? This, to be sure, is one of the tricky points of democracy. The minority often turns out to be right, and though one believes in the efficacy of the democratic process, one has also to recognize that the demand of the many for a particular project at a particular time may mean only disaster.

  Frances Perkins

  Believe, Mean, People

  Frances Perkins (2011). “The Roosevelt I Knew”, p.104, Penguin

  41 Copy quote

• In America, public opinion is the leader

  Frances Perkins

  America, Leader, Public Opinion

  Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”

  24 Copy quote

• But with the slow menace of a glacier, depression came on. No one had any measure of its progress; no one had any plan for stopping it. Everyone tried to get out of its way.

  Frances Perkins

  Depression, Progress, Stopping

  On the depression of the1930s which inspired her to set up the Social Security system. Recalled on her death,14 May1965.

  18 Copy quote

• To one who believes that really good industrial conditions are the hope for a machine civilization, nothing is more heartening than to watch conference methods and education replacing police methods

  Frances Perkins

  Believe, Civilization, Police

  18 Copy quote

• You can always get sympathy by using the word small. With little industries you feel as you do about a little puppy.

  Frances Perkins

  Littles, Puppy, Economics

  13 Copy quote

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