Capable Quote by Margaret Mead

“Both men and women are conceived as merely capable of response to a situation that their society has already defined for them as sexual, and so the Arapesh feel that it is necessary to chaperon betrothed couples who are too young... with their definition of sex as a response to an external situation rather than as spontaneous desire, both men and women are regarded as helpless in the face of seduction. Parents warn their sons even more than they warn their daughters against permitting themselves to get into situations in which someone can make love to them.”

Margaret Mead

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More by Margaret Mead

The prophet who fails to present a bearable alternative and yet preaches doom is part of the trap that he postulates. Not only does he picture us caught in a tremendous man-made or God-made trap from which there is no escape, but we must also listen to him day in, day out, describe how the trap is inexorably closing. To…

Margaret Mead

The contempt for law and the contempt for the human consequences of lawbreaking go from the bottom to the top of American society.

Margaret Mead

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If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that even an intelligent twelve-year-old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls…

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I learned the value of hard work by working hard.

Margaret Mead

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Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

Margaret Mead

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Women are scolded both for being mothers and for not being mothers, for wanting to eat their cake and have it too, and for…

Margaret Mead

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we came to realize that a civilization which rode roughshod over the way of life of other peoples was incorporating evil in its own…

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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Through a grandmother's voice and hands the end of life is known at the beginning.

Margaret Mead

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

Margaret Mead

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We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what…

Margaret Mead

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Humanity . . . lies in man's capacity to question the known and imagine the unknown.

Margaret Mead

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Explore all 314 Margaret Mead quotes

More Capable quotes

When we are capable of living in the moment free from the tyranny of "shoulds," free from the nagging sensation that this moment isn't…

Joan Z. Borysenko

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Everybody is different. Some writers can write reams of great books and then J. D. Salinger wrote just a few. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies.…

Billy Joel

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People are capable of great, great change during the span of one lifetime. And women even more than men.

Gabrielle Zevin

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When you lived it for years and years and years and seen different characters just get pummeled and squashed because 'I said so,' it…

Arn Anderson

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Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any.

Plato

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But, outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.

Jack Kerouac

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I was terrible student. I was capable, but I never like being told what to do, so I was always in the bottom class at school. In Australia, a lot of students study to the end of year 10, but don't go on to the final year, and I was asked to leave the school because they just thought I…

Chris Lilley

Not everyone is capable of madness; and of those lucky enough to be capable, not many have the courage for it.

August Strindberg

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[The Community's] crosses and trials give me confidence. But I derive my hope above all, and most especially, from our utter incapacity, for it is always upon nothingness that God is pleased to rear His works. If at any day we accomplish some good here, the glory will certainly be His alone, since He has employed for this end instruments…

Theodore Guerin