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?
Tags: friendship

Other Quotes by "Ruth Benedict"

A man's indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude.
Tags: virtue, job, gratitude, man
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.
Tags: thinking, world, man, eyes
Culture is not a biologically transmitted complex.
Tags: biologically, transmitted, complex, culture
The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community.
Tags: down, community, history, life
Japan likewise put her hopes of victory on a different basis from that prevalent in the United States. (...) Even when she was winning, her civilian statesmen, her High Command, and her soldiers repeated that this was no contest between armaments; it was pitting of our faith in things against their faith in spirit.
Tags: war, victory, united-states, spirit, materialism, japan, faith
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