Quotes by Claude Levi-Strauss

About Claude Levi-Strauss:

Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the Chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France between 1959 and 1982 and was elected a member of the Académie française in 1973. He received numerous honors from universities and institutions throughout the world and has been called, alongside James George Frazer and Franz Boas, the "father of modern anthropology".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Just as the individual is not alone in the group, nor any one in society alone among the others, so man is not alone in the universe.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Not all poisonous juices are burning or bitter nor is everything which is burning and bitter poisonous.

Claude Levi-Strauss

The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Scientific knowledge advances haltingly and is stimulated by contention and doubt.

Claude Levi-Strauss

For mile after mile the same melodic phrase rose up in my memory. I simply couldn’t get free of it. Each time it had a new fascination for me. Initially imprecise in outline, it seemed to become more and more intricately woven, as if to conceal fro...

Claude Levi-Strauss

From time to time, too, and for the space of two or three paces, an image or an echo would rise up from the recesses of time: in the little streets of the beaters of silver and gold, for instance, there was a clear, unhurried tinkling, as if a djinn ...

Claude Levi-Strauss

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

Claude Levi-Strauss

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

Claude Levi-Strauss

Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.

Claude Levi-Strauss

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

Claude Levi-Strauss

I have never known so much naive conviction allied to greater intellectual poverty.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Il ne peut y avoir une civilisation mondiale puisque la civilisation implique la coexistence de cultures offrant entre elles le maximum de diversité.

Claude Levi-Strauss

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

Claude Levi-Strauss

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.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Author Bio

  • NameClaude Levi-Strauss
  • DescriptionFrench anthropologist and ethnologist
  • BornNovember 28, 1908
  • DiedOctober 30, 2009
  • CountryFrance; Belgium; Brazil
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Politician; Anthropologist; Author; Photographer; Educationist
  • AwardsGrand Cross Of The Legion Of Honour; Commander Of The National Order Of Merit; Commandeur Des Arts Et Des Lettres?; Commander Of The Order Of Academic Palms; Commander Of The Order Of The Crown; Great Cross Of The National Order Of Scientific Merit; CNRS Gold Medal; Erasmus Prize