Classy Quote logo
  • Home
  • Categories
  • Authors
  • Topics
  • Who said

Great Depression Quotes

Great Depression quote from classy quote

Only if we understand our past, can we move forward to a brighter future.

~ Barbara Post-Askin

Barbara Post-Askin Great Depression History Pr Web World Warii

When water fountains start charging to drink, then you know we have a problem.

~ Anthony Liccione

Anthony Liccione Bank Beggar Bereave Business Conserve Cutback Drink Economy Free Government Great Depression Impoverished Issues Jobless Money Nothing Is Free Pay Poverty Stricken Problems In The World Profit Recession Rob Scare Struggle Swindle Take More Thirst Threaten Today S Society Water Water Fountain Withhold

It is true that almost everyone in the foothills farmed and hunted, so there were no breadlines, no men holding signs that begged for work and food, no children going door to door, as they did in Atlanta, asking for table scraps. Here, deep in the woods, was a different agony. Babies, the most tenuous, died from poor diet and simple things, like fevers and dehydration. In Georgia, one in seven babies died before their first birthday, and in Alabama it was worse.You could feed your family catfish and jack salmon, poke salad and possum, but medicine took cash money, and the poorest of the poor, blacks and whites, did not have it. Women, black and white, really did smother their babies to save them from slow death, to give a stronger, sounder child a little more, and stories of it swirled round and round until it became myth, because who can live with that much truth.

~ Rick Bragg

Rick Bragg Alabama Georgia Great Depression Poverty

Democracy is supposed to be ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’. Capitalism is ‘of the capitalist, for the capitalist’. Period.

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

Honey, it isn’t democracy that runs this country. Capitalism rules. It does no good to reason with the capitalists or their politicians. This is a class war. We have to stir up the American people, the lower class. Some of the better-off lower class do show some sympathy for us when they’re smacked with the facts. And when they voice themselves collectively, good things happen.” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

I am a citizen of this country,” I declare, “and Mr. Mayor, tonight I will be a citizen of this city when I put my shoes under my bed. The courageous men, women and children who are with me (blocked from crossing the bridge into NYC) are also citizens of this country and will be sleeping near their shoes too. I want them with me tonight, here, in the city of New York. We are all American citizens.” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

What the hell’s the matter with you men? Are you cowards as well as stupid? You boys make me sick. I’m done with you. You hear me? I want you to go back to your places now and stay with your children until I say you’re needed.“Tell your wives and your older children to bring with them dish pans and cooking pots. Tell them to bring their stirring spoons and ladles. Tell them to carry a mop over their shoulders. We’re goin’ to march on that mine and we’re going to stand guard to see that no scabs are allowed in. Do you hear me?” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

Go home now,” says I. “Keep away from the saloons. Save your money. You are going to need it.”“What are we going to need it for?” asks a voice from the crowd.“For guns and ammunition,” says I.

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

To the RKO motion picture camera at her 100th birthday party: “I pray for the day when working men and women are able to earn a fair share of the wealth they produce in a capitalist system, a day when all Americans are able to enjoy the freedom, rights and opportunities guaranteed them by the Constitution of the United States of America.” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

Turning back to the crowd I say, “I am duty bound to make this plea, but I want to say, with all due respect to the governor here, that I doubt seriously that he will do — cannot do — anything. And for the reason that he is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by the capitalists who placed him here in this building.” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

That’s got to stop,” says I. “The idea of any blood-thirsty pirate (Mexican President Diaz) sitting on a throne and reaching across the border to tromp on our Constitution makes my blood boil.” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

I go back to the union man and say, “Sir, this is a house of God, not a proper place for a union meeting. I have some things to say today that God would not want to hear in His own house. Boys, I want you to get up, every one of you, and go across the road. I want you to sit down on the hillside over there and wait for me to speak to you.

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

What do you see out there?” I ask. “Pittsburgh,” he replies. Now I laugh. “No, young man. What you see is hell with the lid taken off.” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

Well, honey, it’s capitalism that brings out the meanness and greed,” says I. “Our founding fathers did a decent job of framing our democracy. They wrote the Constitution and added a Bill of Rights that intended for people of all classes to enjoy the freedoms the Constitution offers. But capitalism came along without a constitution or a bill of rights and the industrialists grabbed unrestricted power. The capitalists wrote their own ‘Declaration of Capitalism’.” — Mother Jones

~ Jerry Ash

Jerry Ash Capitalism Child Labor Democracy Economics Great Depression Industrial Revolution Industry Labor Military Mill Workers Miners Mining Political Poverty Robber Barons Slavery Social Sweatshops Unions Yellow Journalism

The big question about the American depression is not whether war with Germany and Japan ended it. It is why the Depression lasted until that war. From 1929 to 1940, from Hoover to Roosevelt, government intervention helped to make the Depression Great.

~ Amity Shlaes

Amity Shlaes Economics Government Great Depression Politics

The sepia tone of November has become blood-soaked with paper poppies festooning the lapels of our politicians, newsreaders and business leaders … I will no longer allow my obligation as a veteran to remember those who died in the great wars to be co-opted by current or former politicians to justify our folly in Iraq, our morally dubious war on terror and our elimination of one’s right to privacy.

~ Harry Leslie Smith

Harry Leslie Smith Childhood Economy Europe Germany Great Britain Great Depression Politics War On Terror World War Ii

To fit the individual to live and to function in the institutional life of his day.

~ Max Braithwaite

Max Braithwaite Canada Education Great Depression Humor Teaching

To cut 1930s jobless, FDR taxed corps and rich. Govt used money to hire many millions. Worked then; would now again. Why no debate on that?

~ Richard D. Wolff

Richard D. Wolff 1930S 2012 Economics Franklin D Roosevelt Great Depression Great Recession New Deal Taxation Twitter

In spring, 1937, of course, families still rode the rails because of the Depression, which everyone said was already in the history books as the worst ever. The jobs still couldn’t be found, at least for most people. Everett itself—the smaller, poorer, little brother lying north of Seattle—ached with the unemployed and the hopeless. The labor union tensions in the woods still festered and got bloody at times. But Skybillings—and the railroad logging shows of the Cascade Mountains—felt like they were, inch-by-inch, rebuilding America.

~ Ronald Geigle

Ronald Geigle Environment Great Depression Unions Woods

When I was young I wanted to be just like him.One of the charm, of a bright orange smileand muscular laughter.Bold brown eyes flashing fearlesswhen he sat not alone on cold blue nights in empty boxcars.Riding a freight train'ssolitary wailaway from NebraskaDepression, accompanying dreamswithered farms.Nothing left but the leaves of possibilities.

~ Larsen Bowker

Larsen Bowker Chance Great Depression Leap Of Faith
  • Classy Quote

    ClassyQuote has been providing 500000+ famous quotes from 40000+ popular authors to our worldwide community.

  • Other Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
  • Our Products

    • Chrome Extention
    • Microsoft Edge Add-on
  • Follow Us

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
Copyright © 2025 ClassyQuote. All rights reserved.