Ruth Benedict
Ruth Benedict
Ruth Fulton Benedictwas an American anthropologist and folklorist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth5 June 1887
CountryUnited States of America
Ruth Benedict quotes about
civilization historical groups
Western civilization, because of fortuitous historical circumstances, has spread itself more widely than any other local group that has so far been known.
self civilization people
Most people are shaped to the form of their culture because of the enormous malleability of their original endowment. They are plastic to the moulding force of the society into which they are born. It does not matter whether, with the Northwest Coast, it requires delusions of self-reference, or with our own civilization the amassing of possessions. In any case the great mass of individuals take quite readily the form that is presented to them.
civilization society culture
Society in its full sense ... is never an entity separable from the individuals who compose it. No individual can arrive even at the threshold of his potentialities without a culture in which he participates. Conversely, no civilization has in it any element which in the last analysis is not the contribution of an individual.
war civilization faces
War is, we have been forced to admit, even in the face of its huge place in our civilization, an asocial trait.
men civilization white
The psychological consequences of this spread of white culture have been out of all proportion to the materialistic. This world-wide cultural diffusion has protected us as man had never been protected before from having to take seriously the civilizations of other peoples; it has given to our culture a massive universality that we have long ceased to account for historically, and which we read off rather as necessary and inevitable.
happiness happy trouble
The trouble is not that we are never happy - it is that happiness is so episodical
brave degrees loyal
The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways.
children hands watches
. . . work even when I'm satisfied with it is never my child I love nor my servant I've brought to heel. It's always busy work I do with my left hand, and part of me watches grudging the wastes of a lifetime.
expression justification feels
It is my necessary breath of life to understand and expression is the only justification of life that I can feel without prodding.
long different rebel
It is strange how long we rebel against a platitude until suddenly in a different lingo it looms up again as the only verity.
lenses looks unreasonable
We do not see the lens through which we look.
race racism arrogance
The arrogance of race prejudice is an arrogance which defies what is scientifically known of human races.
enlightenment rewards facts
Culture, with its processes and functions, is a subject upon which we need all the enlightenment we can achieve, and there is no direction in which we can seek with greater reward than in the facts of pre-literate societies.
baby children book
In a world that holds books and babies and canyon trails, why should one condemn oneself to live day-in, day-out with people one does not like, and sell oneself to chaperone and correct them?