74 Quotes About Cultures

Death and Birth are always celebrated the same way in all the cultures irrespective of the country you are born or live in.

Why is the fact that each of us comes from a culture with its own distinctive mix of strengths and weaknesses, tendencies and predispositions, so difficult to acknowledge? Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from—and when we ignore that fact, planes crash.

Entrer chez les gens pour déconcerter leurs idées, leur faire la surprise d'être surpris de ce qu'ils font, de ce qu'ils pensent, et qu'ils n'ont jamais conçu différent, c'est, au moyen de l'ingénuité feinte ou réelle, donner à ressentir toute la relativité d'une civilisation, d'une confiance habituelle dans l'ordre établi.

Furthermore, material remains tell us little about the intangible parts of culture: about marriage and dinner recipes and how the world was categorized. (Anyone who has ever learned a second language knows that different cultures look at the world differently, from what colors and how many of them form the rainbow to who is counted as kin.)

Op de overloop boven aan de trap stond een grote vaas met plastic bloemen. ‘Ik weet het,’ zei de majordomus. ‘Het was ijdele hoop dat dit u zou ontgaan. Ik vraag u met klem de grootmoedigheid op te brengen om mijn nederige excuses te aanvaarden. Deze uit de toon vallende decoratie is het jammerlijke gevolg van het enthousiasme van de nieuwe eigenaar.’ ‘Heeft het hotel een nieuwe eigenaar?’ vroeg ik. ‘Onlangs is Grand Hotel Europa overgegaan in Chinese handen,’ zei hij.

Why must people always assume we moderns knew more than any of the previous cultures? It simply isn't true, evidence proves otherwise.

The remarkable reversal of public attitudes toward the Japanese over the years -- especially in Australia, Peru and the United States -- suggests that behavior and performance are more effective ways of changing other people's minds than moral crusades or emotional denunciations.

There is no basis for thinking that the most successful cultures in history are necessarily the best one for Homo sapiens.

Our cultures are a good fit, given the history and the vision of these two fine companies.