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Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead Quotes

Cultural Anthropologist

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Famous Margaret Mead Quotes

“The first step in the direction of a world rule of law is the recognition that peace no longer is an unobtainable ideal but a necessary condition of continued human existence. But to take even this step we must return to a calm and responsible frame of mind in which we can face the long patient tasks ahead.”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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“Those social behaviors which automatically preclude the building of a democratic world must go - every social limitation of human beings in terms of heredity, whether it be of race, or sex, or class. Every social institution which teaches human beings to cringe to those above and step on those below must be replaced by institutions which teach people to look each other straight in the face.”

PeopleWorldHumansLooksFacesSocialSexTermHuman BeingsRaceStepsClassTeachBuildingBehaviorInstitutionsDemocraticEqualityLimitationReplacedCringeHereditySocial InstitutionsSocial Behavior
Book:And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America
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“Even very recently, the elders could say: 'You know, I have been young and you never have been old.' But today's young people can reply: 'You never have been young in the world I am young in, and you never can be.' ... the older generation will never see repeated in the lives of young people their own unprecedented experience of sequentially emerging change. This break between generations is wholly new: it is planetary and universal.”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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“Every act of motherhood contains a dual intent, as the mother holds the child close and prepares it to move way from her, as she supports the child and stands it firmly on its own feet, and as she guards it against danger and sends it out across the yard, down by the stream, and across the traffic-crowded highway. Unless a mother can do both - gather her child close and turn her child out toward the world - she will fail in her purpose.”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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“Living in the modern world, clothed and muffled, forced to convey our sense of our bodies in terms of remote symbols like walking sticks and umbrellas and handbags, it is easy to lose sight of the immediacy of the human body plan.”

WorldHumansBodyEasyTermLosesPlansModernWalkingSightSticksSymbolsHuman BodyModern WorldUmbrellaImmediacyHandbagsWalking Sticks
Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world
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“Much of the ill-tempered railing against women that has characterized the popular writing of the last two years is a half-heartedattempt to find a way back to a more balanced relationship between our biological selves and the world we have built. So women are scolded both for being mothers and for not being mothers, for wanting to eat their cake and have it too, and for not wanting to eat their cake and have it too.”

WorldWayWritingYearsTwoSelfLastsMotherHalfBuiltIllTwo YearsSexismCakeBalancedBeing A MotherScoldedIll TemperedBalanced Relationship
Author:Margaret Mead
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“No skill, no special apti­tude, no vividness of imagination or precision of thinking would go unrecognized because the child who possessed it was of one sex rather than the other. No child would be relentlessly shaped to one pattern of behavior, but instead there should be many patterns, in a world that had learned to allow to each individual the pattern which was most congenial to his gifts.”

ThinkingWorldShouldChildrenWould BeIndividualSexImaginationSpecialSkillsBehaviorPatternsPossessedPrecisionVividness
Author:Margaret Mead
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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

WorldLifeInspirationalTogetherSuccessPeaceWomenNatureChangeFriendshipCommunityLeadershipFreedomBusinessEducationCourageDoubtGroupsTeamCitizensDeterminationCharityCommittedActivismChanging The WorldThoughtfulMaking A DifferenceTeamworkPhilanthropyVolunteerSocial ChangeThings ChangeNever ChangeTeam BuildingSmall GroupsTeam WorkInspirational TeamChange For The BetterPeace JusticeBest TeamMake Peace Not WarGreat TeamTeamwTeam WorkingBuilding A TeamCooperation TeamworkNature ConservationWorld EnvironmentBeautiful EarthSmall ChangesInspirational TeamworkCooperation And TeamworkMaking A Difference In The WorldSave The EnvironmentTimes Have ChangedInspirational Team BuildingWorld Earth DayPeople Can ChangeTeam Work InspirationalTeam MotivationalSaving The EarthTeam MotivationTeam CollaborationVolunteerism And ServiceInspiring Team BuildingGreat Team BuildingTeamwork In BusinessVolunteering And ServiceEnvironmental HealthGroup Work
Book:The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future
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“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.”

MenWorldHumansHeartHas BeensDoneBodyArtistTurnsNaturalHuman BeingsAnimalMankindModelsBuiltFemalePropertySaintPatternsContemplationFascinatedMetalsClueMysticAlteredIntricateHandicapsOuter Worlds
Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world
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“Earth Day is the first holy day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves all geographical integrities, spans mountains and oceans and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world into one resonating accord, is devoted to the preservation of the harmony in nature and yet draws upon the triumphs of technology, the measurement of time, and instantaneous communication through space.”

PeopleWorldFirstsEarthSpaceTechnologyCommunicationIntegrityHolyMountainOceanDrawsHarmonyTriumphPreservesBordersDevotedPreservationBeltsAccordMeasurementEarth DayInstantaneousResonatingHoly DaysNational Borders
Author:Margaret Mead
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