Franz Boas Quotes

33 quotes in 440 categories

• If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present.
• Remember that in every single case in history the process of adaptation has been one of exceeding slowness. Do not look for the impossible, but…
• The existence of any pure race with special endowments is a myth, as is the belief that there are races all of whose members are…
• No one has ever proved that a human being, through his descent from a certain group of people, must of necessity have certain mental characteristics.
• Its [the anthropological method] power to make us understand the roots from which our civilization has sprung, that it impresses us with the relative value…
• There is no fundamental difference in the ways of thinking of primitive and civilized man. A close connection between race and personality has never been…
• It is clear, from these considerations, that the three methods of classifying mankind-that according to physical characters, according to language, and according to culture-all reflect…
• Furthermore, the study of the present surroundings is insufficient: the history of the people, the influence of the regions through which it has passed on…
• It is our task to inquire into the causes that have brought about the observed differentiation, and to investigate the sequence of events that have…
• My father had retained an emotional affection for the ceremonial of his parental home, without allowing it to influence his intellectual freedom
• I hope I may have succeeded in presenting to you, however imperfectly, the currents of thought due to the work of the immortal Darwin which…
• My parents had broken through the shackles of dogma
• We all know scientists who in private life do not come up to the standard of truthfulness, but who, nevertheless, would not consciously falsify the…
• The historical development of the work of anthropologists seems to single out clearly a domain of knowledge that heretofore has not been treated by any…
• The passion for seeking the truth for truth's sake...can be kept alive only if we continue to seek the truth for truth's sake.
• The disease of mutual distrust among nations is the bane of modern civilization
• In France, that let down the barriers more than a hundred years ago, the feeling of antipathy is still strong enough to sustain an anti-Jewish…
• I object to teaching of slogans intended to befog the mind, of whatever kind they may be
• We do not discuss the anatomical, physiological, and mental characteristics of man considered as an individual; but we are interested in the diversity of these…
• This idea was also brought out very clearly by Wallace, who emphasized that apparently reasonable activities of man might very well have developed without an…

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