Claude Lévi-Strauss

The unconscious is structured like a language.

To understand a society, one must live it from within.

The myth does not explain the world; it transforms it.

Progress is an illusion; we merely exchange one form of barbarism for another.

The role of the anthropologist is to reveal the hidden structures of society.

Life's meaning is found in the connections we make with others.

Totemism is not a belief in a special relationship with animals, but a way of thinking.

The West has lost its myths and with them its meaning.

Humor is the recognition of the absurd in the human condition.

Anthropology teaches us that no culture is superior to another.

The mind is a bricoleur, piecing together the world from available materials.

Traveling is not just moving; it's transforming one's soul.

The essence of humanity is in its capacity for symbolization.

Myths are the dreams of societies.

Science begins with the observation of differences.

Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man.

The binary oppositions structure our thought.

Culture is what makes us human beyond biology.

In the end, we are all savages.

The joy of discovery lies in seeing the familiar in a new light.