Frances Perkins Quotes

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach.

I actually don't think that I'm that much smarter than anybody else. It's just that I frequently just seem to know what to do, and I think that's wisdom.

Give me an entrepreneur with a lot of courage, gusto and who iterates rapidly, and I will back that person day in and day out.

My heroes are always ready, willing, and able to execute moves necessary to get themselves out of deep trouble.

It's very much like filmmaking always is-you're always asked to do something that you're not sure you know how to do. So you make an educated guess as to what you think will work and you hope between that and plan B, that you can end up with a product that's really good.

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.

If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.

Work hard, use your common sense and don't be afraid to trust your instincts.

Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.

I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

We must improvise, and we must experiment, and we must do things that might go wrong, and everything we bring - the people and the equipment - must serve us in that goal.

I never got a formal education. So my intellect is my common sense. I don't have anything else going for me. And my common sense opens the door to instinct.

I have ideas that I think might be amusing, and I try them, and if they look right, I carry them out, and if they don't, I throw them out and try something else. I don't agonize about it.

It would seem that the ant works its way tentatively, and, observing where it fails, tries another place and succeeds.

One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.

I ain't got much education, but I got some sense.

I like to experiment a lot and invent things.

The values transmitted through oral history are many - courage, selflessness, the ability to endure, and to do so with humor and grace. I got those values listening to my dad's stories about the Depression and how their family survived. It gave me courage that I, too, could survive hard times.

Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid.

A fool, Mr, Edgeworth, is one who has never made an experiment.

Mostly, I think of myself as having great common sense. I've always been proud of that. Was I a terrific student? Absolutely not. But put me in a roomful of people, and I don't think I'm ever going to embarrass myself.

Innovation is so hard and so frustrating; it takes the intersections of people with courage, vision, and resources.

You have to think that the answer - and the right answer - for you and your organization might not be something that's been done before. And it's up to you to discover and work with your team to form and figure out how to do successfully.

I had a spell no more striking than other people of my job description. I did all the things you weren't supposed to do. I had a motto: When in doubt, try it. I went out and committed experience.