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.
Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking.
I agree with your remark about loving your enemy as far as actions are concerned. But for me the cognitive basis is the trust in an unrestricted causality. 'I cannot hate him, because he must do what he does.' That means for me more Spinoza than the prophets.
How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.
For, after all, if it is from Christ that we are to learn how God relates himself to sin, suffering, evil, and death, it would seem that he provides us little evidence of anything other than a regal, relentless, and miraculous enmity; sin he forgives, suffering he heals, evil he casts out, and death he conquers. And absolutely nowhere does Christ act as if any of these things are part of the eternal work or purposes of God.
Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream
Peace visits not the guilty mind.
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