Margaret Mead Quotes: Insight and Inspiration from a Cultural Anthropologist

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

“I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.”

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”

“It is easier to change a man’s religion than to change his diet.”

“What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.”

“Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful.”

“Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.”

“As long as any adult thinks that he, like the parent birds of ancient times, can call upon his own kind to kill the child who troubles him, progress will be but a mirage.”

“Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.”

“I measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her fellow human beings.”

“Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.”

“Instead of needing lots of children for labor, we need high-quality children and investments in human capital.”

“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place.”

“I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples — faraway peoples — so that Americans might better understand themselves.”

“A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.”

“Instead of needing lots of children for labor, we need high-quality children and investments in human capital.”

“We are, I think, unusual creatures.”

“The way to do fieldwork is never to come up for air until it is all over.”

“Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.”

“We are living beyond our means. As a people we have developed a lifestyle that is draining the earth of its priceless and irreplaceable resources without regard for the future of our children and people all around the world.”

“Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.”

“It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.”

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

“Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents.”

“The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.”

“What we do today directly affects the world we leave for our children.”

“Society is not something that is artificial: it is a natural group of people, the same as the family unit.”

“We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.”

“Childhood has its own language, and if you understand that language, you can make a bond of understanding with any child.”

“Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.”

“The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.”

“I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.”

“Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.”

“Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre as possible.”

“Women in many countries have shown that movements to improve conditions of life for children, which are sometimes labeled maternalist, in fact have no relation to the horrid and ignoble sentimentality – in which men are so ready to believe – that women do not deserve the vote but only the suffrage of the womb.”

“Women must break through the glass ceiling and be promoted to the cabinet level to wipe out tokenism.”

“As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.”

“We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment.”

“The fact that they valued women made me think that I needed to see how these people lived twelve of their fourteen waking hours.”

“I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.”

“Thank heaven, though, one of the heart’s answers can be made convincing to mind and brain alike: the answer that describes love and attraction.”

“On the day when we can fully trust each other, there will be peace on Earth.”

“It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.”

“They can chart the country, delineating its rivers, mountains, plains, and lakes, but they can’t accurately calibrate the roiling tides of beneath those people’s minds: love, hate, fear, and greed.”

“Man is never alone. Acknowledged or unacknowledged, that which dreams through him is always socially constructed.”

“Children must receive guidance and sympathy from elders; and surely this will be written in the stars.”

“We are living beyond our means. As a people we have developed a lifestyle that is draining the earth of its priceless and irreplaceable resources without regard for the future of our children and people all around the world.”

“I learned the value of hard work, the discipline of my craft… to rely on my ability to take risks and bounce back after setbacks.

“Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.”

“The delights of self-discovery are always available – almost in any small child’s room, or in any meeting of adults devoted to learning.”