In world history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture.
Ruth BenedictAs a matter of history great developments in art have often been remarkably separate from religious motivation and use.
Ruth BenedictIt is my necessary breath of life to understand and expression is the only justification of life that I can feel without prodding.
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