353 Quotes by Margaret Mead

Human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions.

Warfare ... is just an invention, older and more widespread than the jury system, but none the less an invention.

laughter, that distinctively human emotion, laughter which springs from trust in the other, from willingness to put oneself momentarily in the other's place, even at one's own expense, is the special emotional basis of democratic procedures, just as pride is the emotion of an aristocracy, shame of a crowd that rules, and fear of a police state.

The most intractable problem today is not pollution or technology or war; but the lack of belief that the future is very much in the hands of the individual.

Sometimes, instead of helping people to advance, a discovery or an invention holds them back.

Coming to terms with the rhythms of women's lives means coming to terms with life itself, accepting the imperatives of the body rather than the imperatives of an artificial, man-made, perhaps transcendentally beautiful civilization. Emphasis on the male work-rhythm is an emphasis on infinite possibilities; emphasis on the female rhythms is an emphasis on a defined pattern, on limitation.

There is no hierarchy of values by which one culture has the right to insist on all its own values and deny those of another.

Keeping even the most humble talent wrapped in a napkin becomes the more reprehensible the greater the emergency.

In this country, some people start being miserable about growing old while they are still young.