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It seems to me very important to continue to distinguish between two evils. It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.

— Margaret Mead Margaret Mead : Some Personal Views (1979)

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Notes from Wikiquote

As quoted in American Quotations (1992) by Gorton Carruth and Eugene H. Ehrlich

Variants

At times it may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.

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.

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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.

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

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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.