Ashley Montagu Quotes

The omelet called “race” has no existence outside the statistical frying- pan in which it has been reduced by the heat of the anthropological imagination.

The Eskimos live among ice all their lives but have no single word for ice.

And we begin to understand that the goal of life is to die young — as late as possible!

Bigotry and science can have no communication with each other, for science begins where bigotry and absolute certainty end. The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof. Let us never forget that tyranny most often springs from a fanatical faith in the absoluteness of one’s beliefs.

[C]ircumcision, an archaic ritual mutilation that has no justification whatever and no place in a civilized society.

The ability to play is one of the principal criteria of mental health.

The family unit is the institution for the systematic production of mental illness.

Among both the Northern and Eastern Hamites are to be found some of the most beautiful types of humanity.

The world is so full of wonderful things we should all, if we were taught how to appreciate it, be far richer than kings.