Margaret Mead

About

Picture of Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.

Quotes from Margaret Mead

Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to cooperate.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

space compromise cooperation

Permalink for this quote

We make our own criminals, and their crimes are congruent with the national culture we all share. It has been said that a people get the kind of political leadership they deserve. I think they also get the kinds of crime and criminals they themselves bring into being.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

politics crime leadership

Permalink for this quote

Even very recently, the elders could say [to the youths]: "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." . . . This break between generations is wholly new: it is planetary and universal.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

now generations experience world youth old age

Permalink for this quote

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

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

feminism women liberation

Permalink for this quote

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

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

irony uniqueness

Permalink for this quote

Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn't burn up any fossil fuel, doesn't pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

prayer energy songs dancing

Permalink for this quote

The contempt for law and the contempt for the human consequence of lawbreaking go from the bottom to the top of American society.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

politics USA laws consequences

Permalink for this quote

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

More about this quote

Tags:

politics change social change community

Permalink for this quote

American society is very like a fish society. . . . Among certain species of fish, the only thing which determines order of dominance is length of time in the fishbowl. The oldest resident picks on the newest resident, and if the newest resident is removed to a new bowl, he, as oldest resident, will pick on the newcomers.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Permalink for this quote

We won't have a society if we destroy the environment.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

society environment

Permalink for this quote

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

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

women men

Permalink for this quote

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.

—Margaret Mead

More about this quote

Tags:

isolation community

Permalink for this quote

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

More about this quote

Permalink for this quote