An inability to communicate has little to do with international friction-as is seen in the special ferocity of wars fought between people who speak the same language.

At every moment of his life the Shoshone must be careful to observe the complicated folkways of his group, to do reverence to superhuman powers, to remember the courtesies and obligations of family, to pay homage to certain sacred plants, or to avoid particular places.

An invention or new combination can be successful only if all if the elements necessary for the recombination are present in the culture.

A complex society is not necessarily more advanced than a simple one; it has just adapted to conditions in a more complicated way.

In place of science, the Eskimo has only magic to bridge the gap between what he can understand and what is not known. Without magic, his life would be one long panic.

The environment does not determine man's culture; it merely sets the outer limits and at the same time offers opportunities.

Native speakers of a language know intuitively whether a sentence is grammatical or not. They usually cannot specify exactly what is wrong, and very possibly they make the same mistakes in their own speech, but they know-unconsciously, not as a set of rules they learned in school-when a sentence is incorrect.