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If we are to give our utmost effort and skill and enthusiasm, we must believe in ourselves, which means believing in our past and in our future, in our parents and in our children, in that particular blend of moral purpose and practical inventiveness which is the American character.

— Margaret Mead And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America (1942)

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More quotes by Margaret Mead

I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings.

Margaret Mead: Some Personal Views (1979)

I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples — faraway peoples — so that Americans might better understand themselves.

Justin Wintle (2002)

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.

Growing Up in New Guinea (1930)

Thanks to television, for the first time the young are seeing history made before it is censored by their elders.

Banned Books Week '93: Celebrating the Freedom to Read (1993)

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

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Margaret Mead (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.