The most intractable problem today is not pollution or technology or war; but the lack of belief that the future is very much in the hands of the individual.
Margaret MeadThe city as a center where, any day in any year, there may be a fresh encounter with a new talent, a keen mind or a gifted specialist-this is essential to the life of a country. To play this role in our lives a city must have a soul-a university, a great art or music school, a cathedral or a great mosque or temple, a great laboratory or scientific center, as well as the libraries and museums and galleries that bring past and present together. A city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know.
Margaret MeadAnthropology... has always been highly dependent upon photography... As the use of still photography - and moving pictures - has become increasingly essential as a part of anthropological methods, the need for photographers with a disciplined knowledge of anthropology and for anthropologists with training in photography has increased. We expect that in the near future sophisticated training in photography will be a requirement for all anthropologists. (1962)
Margaret Mead...recognize and respect Earth's beautiful systems of balance, between the presence of animals on land, the fish in the sea, birds in the air, mankind, water, air, and land. Most importantly there must always be awareness of the actions by people that can disturb this precious balance.
Margaret Meadwe came to realize that a civilization which rode roughshod over the way of life of other peoples was incorporating evil in its own way of life.
Margaret MeadA woman, even a brilliant woman, must have two qualities in order to fulfill her promise: more energy than mere mortals, and the ability to outwit her culture.
Margaret Meadthere are now no elders who know more than the young themselves about what the young are experiencing.
Margaret MeadWe end up with the contradictory picture of a society that appears to throw its doors wide open to women, but translates her every step towards success as having been damaging.
Margaret MeadIf 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 MeadWhat the world needs is not romantic lovers who are sufficient unto themselves, but husbands and wives who live in communities, relate to other people, carry on useful work and willingly give time and attention to their children.
Margaret MeadWe will be a better country when each religious group can trust its members to obey the dictates of their own religious faith without assistance from the legal structure of the country.
Margaret MeadYoung people are moving away from feeling guilty about sleeping with somebody to feeling guilty if they are *not* sleeping with someone.
Margaret MeadWonder is very important, because if we never wondered, we would never get to the point of asking questions. Yet wonder may lead people to write poetry or to paint pictures or to pray, as well as to ask the kinds of questions about the world and themselves that can be answered by science.
Margaret MeadThe United States has the power to destroy the world, but not the power to save it alone
Margaret MeadGrandparents are given a second chance to enjoy parenthood with fewer of its tribulations and anxieties.
Margaret MeadAs far back as our knowledge takes us, human beings have lived in families. We know of no period when this was not so. We know of no people who have succeeded for long in dissolving the family or displacing it.
Margaret MeadJealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read. It merely records the degree of the lover's insecurity.
Margaret MeadOf all the peoples whom I have studied, from city dwellers to cliff dwellers, I always find that at least 50 percent would prefer to have at least one jungle between themselves and their mothers-in-law.
Margaret MeadWe are at a point in history where a proper attention to space, and especially near space, may be absolutely crucial in bringing the world together.
Margaret MeadWe need every human gift and cannot afford to neglect any gift because of artificial barriers of sex or race or class or national origin.
Margaret MeadKeeping even the most humble talent wrapped in a napkin becomes the more reprehensible the greater the emergency.
Margaret Mead When a person is born we rejoice, and when they're married we jubilate, but when they die we try to pretend nothing has happened.
Margaret Meadthe task of each family is also the task of all humanity. This is to cherish the living, remember those who have gone before, and prepare for those who are not yet born.
Margaret MeadNever underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world.
Margaret MeadWe must have...a place where children can have a whole group of adults they can trust.
Margaret Meadto the extent that either sex is disadvantaged, the whole culture is poorer, and the sex that, superficially, inherits the earth, inherits only a very partial legacy. The more whole the culture, the more whole each member, each man, each woman, each child will be.
Margaret MeadI was a child that both my parents wanted. I was told from the time I was born that I was totally satisfactory. I had a chance to be what I wanted to be.
Margaret MeadIt was not until we saw the picture of the earth, from the moon, that we realized how small and how helpless this planet is - something that we must hold in our arms and care for.
Margaret MeadBlackberry winter, the time when the hoarforst lies on the blackberry blossoms; without this frost the berries will not set. It is the forerunner of a rich harvest.
Margaret Meadtoday's children are the first generation to grow up in a world that has the power to destroy itself.
Margaret MeadSometimes, instead of helping people to advance, a discovery or an invention holds them back.
Margaret MeadThe protection of a ten-year-old girl from her father's advances is a necessary condition of social order, but the protection of the father from temptation is a necessary condition of his continued social adjustment. The protections that are built up in the child against desire for the parent become the essential counterpart to the attitudes in the parent that protect the child.
Margaret MeadMuch 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.
Margaret MeadWhen I stand on a street in a Canadian city and look across the street, it couldn't be anywhere but Canada, but how can I prove it?
Margaret Mead