Margaret Mead > Quotes

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

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
― Margaret Mead

“I was wise enough never to grow up, while fooling people into believing I had.”
― Margaret Mead

“Laughter is man's most distinctive emotional expression.”
― 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.”
― Margaret Mead

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

“Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need. ”
― Margaret Mead

“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. ”
― Margaret Mead

“There is no greater insight into the future than recognizing...when we save our children, we save ourselves”
― Margaret Mead

“You know you love someone when you cannot put into words how they make you feel.”
― Margaret Mead

“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.”
― Margaret Mead

“Young people are moving away from feeling guilty about sleeping with somebody to feeling guilty if they are *not* sleeping with someone.”
― Margaret Mead

“I used to say to my classes that the ways to get insight are: to study infants; to study animals; to study primitive people; to be psychoanalyzed; to have a religious conversion and get over it; to have a psychotic episode and get over it; or to have a love affair with an old Russian. And I stopped saying that when a little dancer in the front row put up her hand and said, 'Does he have to be old?”
― Margaret Mead

“Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For indeed that's all who ever have. ”
― Margaret Mead, The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future

“If the future is to remain open and free, we need people who can tolerate the unknown, who will not need the support of completely worked out systems or traditional blueprints from the past.”
― Margaret Mead

“We won't have a society if we destroy the environment.”
― Margaret Mead

“It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet.”
― Margaret Mead

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

“My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school.”
― Margaret Mead

“Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man. ”
― Margaret Mead

“An ideal culture is one that makes a place for every human gift”
― Margaret Mead

“Never ever depend on governments or institutions to solve any major problems. All social change comes from the passion of individuals.”
― 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 gift will find a fitting place.”
― 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.”
― Margaret Mead

“For the very first time the young are seeing history being made before it is censored by their elders.”
― Margaret Mead

“I learned to observe the world around me, and to note what I saw”
― 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. ”
― Margaret Mead

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

“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.”
― margaret mead

“I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce.”
― Margaret Mead