“I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples — faraway peoples — so that Americans might better understand themselves.”

— Margaret Mead

Cited in: Justin Wintle (2002) Makers of Modern Culture. Vol. 1, p. 350
1970s, Blackberry Winter, 1972

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Margaret Mead 133

American anthropologist 1901–1978

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Burning Page (2016), Chapter 24 (p. 322)
Context: “I have spent most of my life preferring books to people,” Irene said sharply. “Just because I like a few specific people doesn’t change anything.”

“I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding.”

Jean Webster book Daddy-Long-Legs

Source: Daddy-Long-Legs

“I once read that people who study others are wise but those who study themselves are enlightened".”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams Reaching Your Destiny

“Some people belong entirely to others … They have not a day, not an hour to call their own, so completely do they give themselves to others. This is true even in matters of understanding. Some people know everything for others and nothing for themselves.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Otros todos son ajenos, que la necedad siempre va por demasías, y aquí infeliz: no tienen día, ni aun hora suya, con tal exceso de ajenos, que alguno fue llamado “el de todos”.
Aun en el entendimiento, que para todos saben y para sí ignoran.
Maxim 252
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

“Failure in communication is often the main reason why people fail to understand themselves, others and the world in which they live.”

Titon Rahmawan

“Learn to understand others. Most people do not want to understand others, instead wanting others to understand them. This is egotism. We should try to think less of ourselves and more of others. Try to understand others better.”

Jun Hong Lu (1959) Australian Buddhist leader

Quotes from Words of Wisdoms Vol.2

“And all people live, not by reason of any care they have for themselves, but by the love for them that is in other people.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

“My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.”

Aung San Suu Kyi (1945) State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy

“Most People dislike Vanity in others whatever Share they have of it themselves”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Part I, p. 2.
The Autobiography (1818)
Context: Indeed I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory Words, Without Vanity I may say, etc. but some vain thing immediately follow'd. Most People dislike Vanity in others whatever Share they have of it themselves, but I give it fair Quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of Good to the Possessor and to others that are within his Sphere of Action: And therefore in many Cases it would not be quite absurd if a Man were to thank God for his Vanity among the other Comforts of Life.

“Can it be out of the kindness of my heart that I carry out such a labor of mercy on a people who once captured me when they wrecked my father's house and carried off his servants? For by descent I was a freeman, born of a decurion father; yet I have sold this nobility of mine, I am not ashamed, nor do I regret that it might have meant some advantage to others. In short, I am a slave in Christ to this faraway people for the indescribable glory of "everlasting life which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."”

Saint Patrick (385–461) 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland

Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus (c.450?)

“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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Margaret Mead 133

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