Margaret Mead Quotes

An ideal culture is one that makes a place for every human gift

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

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

There is no greater insight into the future than recognizing…when we save our children, we save ourselves

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

Laughter is man’s most distinctive emotional expression. Man shares the capacity for love and hate, anger and fear, loyalty and grief, with other living creatures. But humour, which has an intellectual as well as an emotional element belongs to man

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

No country that permits firearms to be widely and randomly distributed among its population – especially firearms that are capable of wounding and killing human beings – can expect to escape violence, and a great deal of violence.

Female animals defending their young are notoriously ferocious and lack the playful delight in combat which characterizes the mock combats of males of the same species. There seems very little ground for claiming that the mother of young children is more peaceful, more responsible, and more thoughtful for the welfare of the human race than is her husband or brother.

We must have…a place where children can have a whole group of adults they can trust.

Creationism: the theory that Rome was built in a day.

Grandparents are given a second chance to enjoy parenthood with fewer of its tribulations and anxieties.