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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the moral obligation to support the diligent and honest workers in society who often face hardships despite their efforts.
Frances Perkins articulates a fundamental ethical principle that emerged in the context of national life, advocating for the rights of honest and hardworking individuals who struggle with poverty. She reflects on the conflict between societal conscience, which demands sympathy and security for these workers, and the harsh realities that often lead them to live in misery. This quote calls for a societal commitment to ensure that honesty and hard work are rewarded with dignity and support, rather than neglect.
In practice
Use this quote in a speech about labor rights and the importance of supporting workers.
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.
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.
The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.
By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death and let it go which way it will he that dies this year is quit for the next
Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.
No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.
The tradition of nonviolence, optimism, concern for the individual, and unconditional compassion that developed in Tibet is the culmination of a slow inner revolution, a cool one, hard to see, that began 2,500 years ago with the Buddha's insight about the end of suffering. What I have learned from these people has forever changed my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner science particularly relevant to the difficult time in which we live.
They were painfully clean. But inwardly they stank. Never once had they opened the door which leads to the soul; never once did they dream of taking a blind leap into the dark.
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
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