Famous Margaret Mead Quotations

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"The institution of marriage in all societies is a pattern within which the strains put by civilization on males and females alike must be resolved, a pattern within which men must learn, in return for a variety of elaborate rewards, new forms in which sexual spontaneity is still possible, and women must learn to discipline their receptivity to a thousand other considerations."
by Margaret Mead
"As long as any adult thinks that he, like the parents and teachers of old, can become introspective, invoking his own youth to understand the youth before him, he is lost."
by Margaret Mead
"If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life."
by Margaret Mead
"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."
by Margaret Mead
"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
by Margaret Mead
"For the very first time the young are seeing history being made before it is censored by their elders."
by Margaret Mead
"Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need"
by Margaret Mead
"I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don't agree with or like."
by Margaret Mead
"I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings."
by Margaret Mead
"I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings"
by Margaret Mead
"In the modern world we have invented ways of speeding up invention, and people's lives change so fast that a person is born into one kind of world, grows up in another, and by the time his children are growing up, lives in still a different world"
by Margaret Mead
"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."
by Margaret Mead
"Men have always been afraid that women could get along without them"
by Margaret Mead
"Mothers are a biological necessity; fathers are a social invention."
by Margaret Mead
"Motherhood is a biological fact, while fatherhood is a social invention"
by Margaret Mead
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has"
by Margaret Mead
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
by Margaret Mead
"Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have."
by Margaret Mead
"Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation"
by Margaret Mead
"Our first and most pressing problem is how to do away with warfare as a method of solving conflicts between national groups within a society who have different views about how the society is to run."
by Margaret Mead
"Sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire."
by Margaret Mead
"Thanks to television, for the first time the young are seeing history made before it is censored by their elders."
by Margaret Mead
"The mind is not sex-typed."
by Margaret Mead
"The negative cautions of science are never popular. If the experimentalist would not commit himself, the social philosopher, the preacher, and the pedagogue tried the harder to give a short-cut answer."
by Margaret Mead
"The United States has the power to destroy the world, but not the power to save it alone."
by Margaret Mead
"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."
by Margaret Mead
"Women want mediocre men, and men are working to become as mediocre as possible."
by Margaret Mead
"Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre as possible."
by Margaret Mead
"Women want medicore men. and men are working hard to become as medicore as possible."
by Margaret Mead
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
by Margaret Mead
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
by Margaret Mead
"Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children."
by Margaret Mead
"Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation."
by Margaret Mead
"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."
by Margaret Mead
"One of the oldest human needs is having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night."
by Margaret Mead
"Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, Go to sleep by yourselves. And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help."
by Margaret Mead
"I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world."
by Margaret Mead
"Our humility rest upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited."
by Margaret Mead
"I've been married three times -- and each time I married the right person."
by Margaret Mead
"When human beings have been fascinated by the contemplation of their own hearts, the more intricate biological pattern of the female has become a model for the artist, the mystic, and the saint. When mankind turns instead to what can be done, altered, built, invented, in the outer world, all natural properties of men, animals, or metals become handicaps to be altered rather than clues to be followed."
by Margaret Mead
"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."
by Margaret Mead
"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 human gift will find a fitting place."
by Margaret Mead
"The institution of marriage in all societies is a pattern within which the strains put by civilization on males and females alike must be reso..."
by Margaret Mead


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