Quotes from Margaret Mead

Be who you really are, do what you want to do, in order to have what you really want.

When I stand on a street in a Canadian city and look across the street, it couldn't be anywhere but Canada, but how can I prove it?

The most intractable problem today is not pollution or technology or war; but the lack of belief that the future is very much in the hands of the individual.

Sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire.

Jealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read. It merely records the degree of the lover's insecurity.

You just have to learn not to care about the dust mites under the beds.

We make our own criminals, and their crimes are congruent with the national culture we all share. It has been said that a people get the kind of political leadership they deserve. I think they also get the kinds of crime and criminals they themselves bring into being.

In almost any society, I think, the quality of the non-conformists is like to be just as good as, and no better than that of the conformists.

There is no hierarchy of values by which one culture has the right to insist on all its own values and deny those of another.

I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.

Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate.

War is only an invention, not a biological necessity.

WE MUST DEVISE A SYSTEM IN WHICH PEACE IS MORE REWARDING THAN WAR.

today's children are the first generation to grow up in a world that has the power to destroy itself.

Warfare ... is just an invention, older and more widespread than the jury system, but none the less an invention.

I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.

I don't consider my marriages as failures! It's idiotic to assume that because a marriage ends, it's failed.

A city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know.

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

The important thing about women today is, as they get older, they still keep house. It's one reason why they don't die, but men die when they retire. Women just polish the teacups.

Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children.

Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need.

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.

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.