The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community
Ruth BenedictWar is, we have been forced to admit, even in the face of its huge place in our civilization, an asocial trait.
Ruth BenedictWestern civilization, because of fortuitous historical circumstances, has spread itself more widely than any other local group that has so far been known.
Ruth BenedictMost people are shaped to the form of their culture because of the enormous malleability of their original endowment. They are plastic to the moulding force of the society into which they are born. It does not matter whether, with the Northwest Coast, it requires delusions of self-reference, or with our own civilization the amassing of possessions. In any case the great mass of individuals take quite readily the form that is presented to them.
Ruth Benedict