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Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents.

Margaret Mead

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Margaret Mead
Age: 76 †
Born: 1901
Born: December 16
Died: 1978
Died: November 15
Anthropologist
Cultural Anthropologist
Curator
Film Director
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Social
Necessities
Boyfriend
Biological
Fathers
Accidents
Dad
Father

More quotes by Margaret Mead

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Warfare ... is just an invention, older and more widespread than the jury system, but none the less an invention.
Margaret Mead
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We may say that many, if not all, of the personality traits which we have called masculine or feminine are as lightly linked to sex as are the clothing, the manners, and the form of headdress that a society at a given period assigns to either sex.
Margaret Mead
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No matter how free divorce, how frequently marriages break up, in most societies there is the assumption of permanent mating, of the idea that the marriage should last as long as both live. . . . No known society has ever invented a form of marriage strong enough to stick that did not contain the 'till death us do part' assumption.
Margaret Mead
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There is no more creative force in the world than the menopausal woman with zest.
Margaret Mead
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
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We — mankind — stand at the center of an evolutionary crisis, with a new evolutionary device — our consciousness of the crisis — as our unique contribution.
Margaret Mead
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American society is very like a fish society. . . . Among certain species of fish, the only thing which determines order of dominance is length of time in the fishbowl. The oldest resident picks on the newest resident, and if the newest resident is removed to a new bowl, he, as oldest resident, will pick on the newcomers.
Margaret Mead
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If sports are the toy department of life, then the NFL is the FAO Schwartz of sports.
Margaret Mead
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Leisure and the cultivation of human capacities are inextricably interdependent.
Margaret Mead
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I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.
Margaret Mead
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[Among the Arapeh... both father and mother are held responsible for child care by the entire community...] If one comments upon a middle-aged man as good-looking, the people answer: 'Good-looking? Ye-e-e-s? But you should have seen him before he bore all those children'.
Margaret Mead
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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.
Margaret Mead
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Monogamous heterosexual love is probably one of the most difficult, complex and demanding of human relationships.
Margaret Mead
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There is no greater power in the world than the zest of a postmenopausal woman.
Margaret Mead
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This is a precious possession which we cannot afford to tarnish, but society always is attempting to make the physician into a killer to kill the defective child at birth, to leave the sleeping pills beside the bed of the cancer patient ... It is the duty of society to protect the physicians from such requests.
Margaret Mead
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Jealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read. It merely records the degree of the lover's insecurity.
Margaret Mead
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Man's most human characteristic is not his ability to learn, which he shares with many other species, but his ability to teach and store what others have developed and taught him.
Margaret Mead
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If we are to give our utmost effort and skill and enthusiasm, we must believe in ourselves, which means believing in our past and in our future, in our parents and in our children, in that particular blend of moral purpose and practical inventiveness which is the American character.
Margaret Mead
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WE MUST DEVISE A SYSTEM IN WHICH PEACE IS MORE REWARDING THAN WAR.
Margaret Mead
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Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.
Margaret Mead