Margaret Mead

"Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have."

"Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess."

"Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents."

"Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive."

"I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce."

"I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don't agree with or like."

"I learned the value of hard work by working hard."

"I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings."

"Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful."

"Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation."

"Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship."

"We won't have a society if we destroy the environment."

"Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible."