Claude Lévi-Strauss

“Objects are what matter. Only they carry the evidence that throughout the centuries something really happened among human beings.”

“I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact.”

“What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.”

“The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.”

“The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions.”

“The 'savage' mind is logical in the same way and on the same lines as ours.”

“The primary function of writing, as a means of communication, is to facilitate the enslavement of other human beings.”

“The only phenomenon with which writing has always been concomitant is the creation of cities and empires.”

“The world began without man, and it will complete itself without him.”

“Being a human being is a state of perpetual crisis.”

“A myth is a story that is not true, but which is very important to a culture because it expresses and explains that culture's worldview.”

“Man is not alone in the universe, any more than the individual is alone in the group.”

“Animals are good to think with.”

“I am the place where cosmic process becomes conscious of itself.”