Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Margaret Mead
Age: 76 †
Born: 1901
Born: December 16
Died: 1978
Died: November 15
Anthropologist
Cultural Anthropologist
Curator
Film Director
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Time
Picks
Bowls
Resident
Like
Species
Removed
Newest
Among
Length
Newcomers
Society
Fish
Residents
American
Fishes
Dominance
Order
Immigration
Oldest
Certain
Pick
Bowl
Thing
Determine
Determines

More quotes by Margaret Mead

Image
Be who you really are, do what you want to do, in order to have what you really want.
Margaret Mead
Image
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
Image
It is not until science has become a discipline to which the research ability of any mind from any class in society can be attracted that it can become rigorously scientific.
Margaret Mead
Image
We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.
Margaret Mead
Image
Women are scolded both for being mothers and for not being mothers, for wanting to eat their cake and have it too, and for not wanting to eat their cake and have it too.
Margaret Mead
Image
One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night.
Margaret Mead
Image
The negative cautions of science are never popular.
Margaret Mead
Image
Cynicism is the other thing that goes with sentimentality.
Margaret Mead
Image
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.
Margaret Mead
Image
There is no more creative force in the world than the menopausal woman with zest.
Margaret Mead
Image
Young people are moving away from feeling guilty about sleeping with somebody to feeling guilty if they are *not* sleeping with someone.
Margaret Mead
Image
A society which is clamouring for choice, which is filled with many articulate groups, each urging its own brand of salvation, its own variety of economic philosophy, will give each new generation no peace until all have chosen or gone under, unable to bear the conditions of choice.
Margaret Mead
Image
Throughout history, females have picked providers for males. Males pick anything.
Margaret Mead
Image
Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.
Margaret Mead
Image
Loving you is just like breathing, as effortless, and as lovely.
Margaret Mead
Image
Our human situation no longer permits us to make armed dichotomies between those who are good and those who are evil, those who are right and those who are wrong. The first blow dealt to the enemy's children will sign the death warrant of our own.
Margaret Mead
Image
I approached the idea of college with the expectation of taking part in an intellectual feast. ... In college, in some way that I devoutly believed in but could not explain, I expected to become a person.
Margaret Mead
Image
today's children are the first generation to grow up in a world that has the power to destroy itself.
Margaret Mead
Image
Because our civilization is woven of so many diverse strands, the ideas which any one group accepts will be found to contain numerous contradictions.
Margaret Mead
Image
Monogamous heterosexual love is probably one of the most difficult, complex and demanding of human relationships.
Margaret Mead