The Great Depression Quotes
They Said It
| "In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope—nothing of man." - Former President Calvin Coolidge, 193237 |
| "If, with all the advantages I've had, I can't make a living, I'm just no good, I guess."38 - An unemployed Texas schoolteacher, 1933 |
| "Three or four million heads of households don't turn into tramps and cheats overnight, nor do they lose the habits and standards of a lifetime. [...] They don't drink any more than the rest of us, they don't lie any more, they're no lazier than the rest of us. [...] An eighth or a tenth of the earning population does not change its character which has been generations in the molding, or, if such a change actually occurs, we can scarcely charge it up to personal sin." - Federal relief administrator Harry Hopkins, 193339 |
| "How many men ever went to a barbecue and would let one man take off the table what's intended for nine-tenths of the people to eat? The only way you'll ever be able to feed the balance of the people is to make that man come back and bring back some of that grub that he ain't got no business with!" - Louisiana Senator Huey P. Long, 193440 |