List of Ruth Benedict Quotes

The Heavier Our Bodies, The Higher Our Will, Our Spirit, Rises Above Them.' 'the Wearier We Are, The More Splendid The Training.

As A Matter Of History Great Developments In Art Have Often Been Remarkably Separate From Religious Motivation And Use.

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?

It Is My Necessary Breath Of Life To Understand And Expression Is The Only Justification Of Life That I Can Feel Without Prodding.

. . . 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.

Western Civilization, Because Of Fortuitous Historical Circumstances, Has Spread Itself More Widely Than Any Other Local Group That Has So Far Been Known.

It Is Strange How Long We Rebel Against A Platitude Until Suddenly In A Different Lingo It Looms Up Again As The Only Verity.

The Prime Lesson The Social Sciences Can Learn From The Natural Sciences Is Just This: That It Is Necessary To Press On To Find The Positive Conditions Under Which Desired Events Take Place, And That These Can Be Just As Scientifically Investigated As Can Instances Of Negative Correlation. This Problem Is Beyond Relativity.

... It Is A Commonplace That Men Like War. For Peace, In Our Society, With The Feeling We Have Then That It Is Feeble-minded To Strive Except For One's Own Private Profit, Is A Lonely Thing And A Hazardous Business. Over And Over Men Have Proved That They Prefer The Hazards Of War With All Its Suffering. It Has Its Compensations.

War Is, We Have Been Forced To Admit, Even In The Face Of Its Huge Place In Our Civilization, An Asocial Trait.

I Have Always Used The World Of Make-believe With A Certain Desperation.

... Oh, I Long To Prove Myself By Writing! The Best Seems To Die In Me When I Give It Up. It Is The Self I Love--not This Efficient, Philanthropic Self.