Becoming Madam Secretary

Why economics?" I echoed gamely. "Because many people in America believe poverty is a moral problem having to do with sloth or some other sin we an blame on individuals. But I believe poverty in American is an economic problem that can be solved.. and I intend to solve it.

Churchill once said that meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne, and that knowing him was like drinking it.

this gives us hope that some of the things which may be suggested today, which may be regarded as controversial, will be accepted as part of the ordinary life of Americans in ten or twenty years. That’s what progress is.

You’ve been the first to do so many things so that other women could follow in your footsteps.

If we don’t keep chasing the future, we’ll think too much about the past.

Are you sure you want these things done? Because you won't want me for secretary of labor if you don't. I'd be an embarrassment to you, because when I start on a thing, I round up cohorts. I whip up public demand. You wouldn't want me if you didn't want that.

We’ve got to give our people a reason to believe in our democratic system so they’ll stand up for it. If we want to keep our American way of life

As my grandmother always said, When in doubt, do what’s right.

I hadn’t been able to imagine that my storied ancestors wanted to bequeath me a country in which poverty and suffering were tolerated.

if Americans wanted to keep their freedom, they ought to don liberty caps like the Founding Fathers and resist the concentration of wealth into too few hands. Or we’d reap the economic whirlwind…

The delegates fought, ballot after ballot, over an inclusive future or one that embraced bigotry and clutched its collective pearls at alcohol and racy books. I was particularly appalled when William Jennings Bryan, who had run three times under the party’s banner, shouted up at the immigrants in the galleries, “You do not represent the future of America!

After all, what was the point of keeping America standing if she didn’t stand for something?

Miss Perkins, sometimes there's a man—or a woman— who is made for a moment. I happen to think you were made for this one.

Fortunately for Frank, he still did have two perfectly good legs. Eleonor's. And it was Eleanor, as a literal stand-in for her husband, who led the convention in chants and cheers.

My family built this country with muddy hands and a spark of madness.

He was a shameless political animal, happy to let underlings execute plans, take credit for them if they succeeded, or pretend he had nothing to do with them if they flopped.

Section 24 was the nickname for agents working under a section of the immigration law that empowered the secretary of labor to deport people. A power that’d been sorely abused. New York policemen had long warned about Section 24 agents behaving like gangsters, roughing people up and raiding private homes and dance halls looking for immigrants to blackmail with threats of deportation if they didn’t pay protection money.

This job was going to be a little more perilous than I supposed. And from that day on, I carried a copy of my insurance policies and my last will in my handbag so that if anything did happen to me, I wouldn't cause anyone any fuss.

If we don’t lend a hand to millions of folks out there who’ve lost everything, they’ll be sitting ducks for nationalist demagogues. Just look at what happened in Italy and Germany. It’s going to come to blows one day. We’ve got to give our people a reason to believe in our democratic system so they’ll stand up for it. If we want to keep our American way of life alive and well, we need to give our folks some security and a democracy worth fighting for.

the battle for democracy is never done. And ours is worth fighting for.

That man talks like a natural-born dictator, and the president is enabling him.

the American experiment has repeatedly proved that people fleeing tyranny make grateful citizens—decent, hardworking, and productive. We’ve reaped tangible benefits by taking in scientists, artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.

I thought it laughable that he could convince the German people to vote away their own rights and let him do as he pleased. I’m not laughing now.

These veterans fought for their country, and now they’re out of work with nowhere else to go, and they’re being shot at by their own government.

What had begun as a recession followed by a stock market crash was now a severe economic depression. Hoover said it would all be over in sixty days.

The president of the United States has deceived people about employment. It is worse, not better. It’s a cruel deceit because people will believe it.

apathy was an actual danger to a nation that boasted of being a government both for the people and by the people.

many people in America believe poverty is a moral problem having to do with sloth or some other sin we can blame on individuals. But I believe poverty in America is an economic problem that can be solved…

Social Security—which was expanded again and again to cover more Americans of every race and creed—is now so much a part of American psychology that I truly believe no politician, political party, or political group can possibly destroy it and maintain a democratic system. I suppose I should also be grateful that the reforms I fought for are bricks so firmly embedded in the edifice of our national life that Americans now take them for granted.

I also wish to take this opportunity to remind you that the American experiment has repeatedly proved that people fleeing tyranny make grateful citizens—decent, hardworking, and productive. We’ve reaped tangible benefits by taking in scientists, artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.