If we justify war, it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits

Man is not committed in detail by his biological constitution to any particular variety of behavior.

What really binds men together is their culture, the ideas and the standards they have in common.

I gambled on having the strength to live two lives, one for myself and one for the world.

The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community

The life-history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.

The prime lesson the social sciences can learn from the natural sciences is just this: that it is necessary to press on to find the positive conditions under which desired events take place, and that these can be just as scientifically investigated as can instances of negative correlation. This problem is beyond relativity.