“If a fish were an anthropologist, the last thing it would discover would be water.”

You know you love someone when you cannot put into words how they make you feel.

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

Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we’ve put it in an impossible situation.

There are now no elders who know more than the young themselves about what the young are experiencing.

We are living beyond our means. As a people we have developed a life-style that is draining the earth of its priceless and irreplaceable resources without regard for the future of our children and people all around the world.

What we lack is not so much leisure to do as time to reflect and time to feel. What we seldom “take” is time to experience the things that have happened, the things that are happening, the things that are still ahead of us.

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.

We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.

[Partly as a consequence of male authority] prestige value always attaches to the activities of men.

Between friends there is no bribery. The relationship of friends is intrinsically fair and equal. Neither feels stronger or more clever or more beautiful than the other.

Warfare is just an invention, older and more widespread than the jury system, but none the less an invention.

One characteristic of Americans is that they have no toleration at all of anybody putting up with anything. We believe that whatever is going wrong ought to be fixed.

I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don’t agree with or like.

Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.

I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.