Women should be permitted to volunteer for non-combat service, they should not be accepted, voluntarily or through the draft, as combat soldiers. We know of no comparable ways of training women and girls, and we have no real way of knowing whether the kinds of training that teach men both courage and restraint would be adaptable to women or effective in a crisis. But the evidence of history and comparative studies of other species suggest that women as a fighting body might be far less amenable to the rules that prevent warfare from becoming a massacre and, with the use of modern weapons, that protect the survival of all humanity. This is what I meant by saying that women in combat might be too fierce.
—Margaret Mead
Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn’t burn up any fossil fuel, doesn’t pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: Prayer
Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren in order to be a full human being.
—Margaret Mead
It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: Evil, Goodness
Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: Behavior, Humanity, Manners
If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: Aging, Age
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: People, Change, Growth, Kindness, Doubt, Courage, Zen, Action
One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: Relationships, Humanity
The liberals have not softened their view of actuality to make themselves live closer to the dream, but instead sharpen their perceptions and fight to make the dream actuality or give up the battle in despair.
—Margaret Mead
Coming to terms with the rhythms of women’s lives means coming to terms with life itself, accepting the imperatives of the body rather than the imperatives of an artificial, man-made, perhaps transcendentally beautiful civilization. Emphasis on the male work-rhythm is an emphasis on infinite possibilities; emphasis on the female rhythms is an emphasis on a defined pattern, on limitation.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: Men & Women, Women, Men
You just have to learn not to care about the dust-mice under the beds.
—Margaret Mead
Topics: Perfection
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Carlos Castaneda Peruvian-born American Anthropologist
Stephen Jay Gould American Paleontologist
Erica Jong American Novelist, Poet
William Graham Sumner American Polymath
Francine du Plessix Gray American Writer, Literary Critic
M. Scott Peck American Psychiatrist
Buckminster Fuller American Inventor, Philosopher
William Safire American Columnist
Bill Cosby American Actor
Ethel Merman American Actor