Quotes by Ruth Benedict

“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”

“Culture is not a biologically transmitted complex.”

“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”

“I long to speak out the intense inspiration that comes to me from the lives of strong women.”

“The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community.”

“No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking.”

“The trouble is not that we are never happy - it is that happiness is so episodical”

“Our faith in the present dies out long before our faith in the future.”

“The trouble with life isnt that there is no answer, its that there are so many answers.”

“The adequate study of culture, our own and those on the opposite side of the globe, can press on to fulfillment only as we learn today from the humanities as well as from the scientists.”

“At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being”

“Racism is mans gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.”

“We are still conditioning people in this country and, indeed, all over the globe to the myth of white superiority. We are constantly being told that we dont have racism in this country anymore, but most of the people who are saying that are white. White people think it isnt happening because it isnt happening to them.”

“We should have learnt by now that laws and court decisions can only point the way. They can establish criteria of right and wrong. And they can provide a basis for rooting out the evils of bigotry and racism. But they cannot wipe away centuries of oppression and injustice / however much we might desire it.”

“In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”

“Affirmative action is the attempt to deal with malignant racism by instituting benign racism”

“Anthropology is the most humanistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities.”

“Anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over-except when they are different.”

“Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.”

“Anthropology is the only discipline that can access evidence about the entire human experience on this planet.”