The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good, and against some greatly scorned evil.
Ruth BenedictThe trouble with life isn't that there is no answer, it's that there are so many answers.
Ruth BenedictCulture, with its processes and functions, is a subject upon which we need all the enlightenment we can achieve, and there is no direction in which we can seek with greater reward than in the facts of pre-literate societies.
Ruth BenedictIt is strange how long we rebel against a platitude until suddenly in a different lingo it looms up again as the only verity.
Ruth BenedictAs a matter of history great developments in art have often been remarkably separate from religious motivation and use.
Ruth Benedict... it is a commonplace that men like war. For peace, in our society, with the feeling we have then that it is feeble-minded to strive except for one's own private profit, is a lonely thing and a hazardous business. Over and over men have proved that they prefer the hazards of war with all its suffering. It has its compensations.
Ruth Benedict