Culture Quotes About Its Power in Society

The conversation around diversity continues to grow in society, and these culture quotes show why it’s so beneficial in the world. 

One of the amazing things about America is the diverse culture that the country has from being created as the melting pot.

While the diversity in culture has caused some uncomfortable and challenging situations throughout the country’s past, it’s also one of the things that can make us strong. 

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According to a United Nations Development Programme report, countries with greater cultural diversity tend to have higher economic growth rates.

Specifically, countries with the highest cultural diversity scores had an average annual growth rate of 2.4%, compared to 1.8% for countries with lower scores.

Why is it important to embrace our cultural differences?

By learning to embrace our cultural differences we make our society even stronger.

The following culture quotes will help you learn to appreciate the benefits of cultural diversity in society.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Look through our complete collection of inspirational quotes here.

Culture quotes about our ways of life

According to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States, people who participate in cultural activities (such as attending concerts, museums, or art exhibits) report higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of anxiety and depression.

The study indicates that cultural participation is linked to improved well-being.

1. “Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.” – Thomas Wolfe

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2. “Cultures grow on the vine of tradition.” – Jonah Goldberg

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3. “The beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people.” – Unknown

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4. “Culture is a way of coping with the world by defining it in detail.” – Malcolm Bradbury

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5. “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” – Jawaharlal Nehru

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6. “Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear.” – Walter Lippman

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7. “The role of culture is that it’s the form through which we as a society reflect on who we are, where we’ve been, where we hope to be.” – Wendell Pierce

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8. “We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which we were given to us by our society.” – Alan Watts

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9. “We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.” – Kofi Annan

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10. “Human cultural diversity is vast; the range of cultural practices, beliefs, and languages that we speak is vast.” – Mark Pagel

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11. “We are, at almost every point of our day, immersed in cultural diversity: faces, clothes, smells, attitudes, values, traditions, behaviors, beliefs, rituals.” – Randa Abdel-Fattah

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Culture quotes on the beauty of diversity

According to a study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, only 2.3% of lead or co-lead characters in top-grossing films from 2007 to 2019 were depicted as having a disability, and only 22.5% of lead or co-lead characters were from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups.

This lack of representation can perpetuate stereotypes and limit the influence of certain cultural perspectives in society.

12. “Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbor is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.” – Paulo Coelho

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13. “Given New York City’s cultural diversity, it has always attracted creative people.” – Fred Wilson

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14. “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King Jr. 

15. “Every man’s ability may be strengthened or increased by culture.” – John Abbot

16. “Every one of us is a perfect human being, deformed by the family, the society and the culture.” — Alejandro Jodorowsky

17. “Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.” – Robert Alan

18. “New Orleans is unlike any city in America. Its cultural diversity is woven into the food, the music, the architecture – even the local superstitions. It’s a sensory experience on all levels and there’s a story lurking around every corner.” – Ruta Sepetys

19. “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” – Stephen Covey

20. “Our cultural diversity has most certainly shaped our national character.” – Julie Bishop

Culture quotes on embracing ourselves

According to a study by the American Sociological Association, individuals with a strong cultural identity have a 45% higher likelihood of being satisfied with their lives.

This illustrates the powerful role culture plays in shaping personal happiness and overall well-being.

21. “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” – Shannon Alder

22. “We are increasingly recognizing and accepting, respecting and celebrating, our cultural diversity.” – Julie Bishop

23. “We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation.” – Cesar Chavez

24. “No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.” – Mahatma Gandhi

25. “Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.” – John Hume

26. “Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulations, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world.” – Hélder Câmara

27. “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” – John F. Kennedy

28. “Never judge someone by the way he looks or a book by the way it’s covered; for inside those tattered pages, there’s a lot to be discovered.” – Stephen Cosgrove

29. “Living through the intersections of cultural diversity has given me an intimate understanding of the dynamics of living between the dimensions of East and West, traditional and modern, and political and spiritual. – Deeyah Khan

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30. “Real cultural diversity results from the interchange of ideas, products, and influences, not from the insular development of a single national style.” – Tyler Cowen

31. “Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Culture quotes on the importance of protecting it

Research conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 76% of people believe that their culture is important in defining their identity.

This statistic emphasizes the significance of culture in fostering a sense of belonging and self-understanding among individuals.

32. “Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.” – Albert Camus

33. “Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” – Cesar Chavez

34. “Culture’s worth huge, huge risks. Without culture, we’re all totalitarian beasts.” – Norman Mailer

35. “Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.” – Jacqueline Woodson

36. “Culture makes all men gentle.” – Menander

37. “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou

38. “If we are to preserve culture we must continue to create it.” – Johan Huizinga

39. “When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don’t just turn it off one day.” – Chinua Achebe

40. “Our culture is more shaped by the arts and humanities than it often is by politics.” – Jim Leach  

41. “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Culture quotes to enlighten you

In a study led by Dr. Geert Hofstede, it was discovered that national culture has a substantial influence on workplace behavior and organizational performance.

This finding highlights the importance of understanding cultural differences in order to create effective and harmonious work environments.

42. “When you learn something from people, or from a culture, you accept it as a gift, and it is your lifelong commitment to preserve it and build on it.” – Yo-Yo Ma

43. “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.” — Jimmy Carter

44. “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.” – Mahatma Gandhi
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45. “Every culture has something to be ashamed of, but every culture also has the right to change, to challenge negative traditions, and to create new ones.” – Ralph Nader

46. “Endless data show that diverse teams make better decisions. We are building products that people with very diverse backgrounds use, and I think we all want our company makeup to reflect the makeup of the people who use our products. That’s not true of any industry really, and we have a long way to go.” — Sheryl Sandberg

47. “Everybody blames the culture without taking responsibility.” – James Levine

48. “To merely observe your culture without contributing to it seems very close to existing as a ghost.” – Chuck Palahniuk

49. “The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men.” – John F. Kennedy

50. “Diversity and inclusion, which are the real grounds for creativity, must remain at the center of what we do.” – Marco Bizzarri

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Culture quotes about our traditions

51. “What a culture we live in, we are swimming in an ocean of information, and drowning in ignorance.” – Richard Paul Evans

52. “The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture. At the beginning of the journey to the next world, one’s education and culture can either provide the greatest assistance or else act as the greatest burden, to the person who has just died.” – Plato

53. “The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.” – Gabriel Zaid

54. “No human culture is inaccessible to someone who makes the effort to understand, to learn, to inhabit another world.” – Henry Louis Gates Jr.

55. “The imagination is the goal of history. I see culture as an effort to literally realize our collective dreams.” – Terence McKenna

56. “Our culture places a very high premium on self-expression, but is relatively disinterested in producing selves that are worth expressing.” – Matthew Kelly

57. “Culture consists of connections, not of separations: to specialize is to isolate.” – Carlos Fuentes

58. “This history of culture will explain to us the motives, the conditions of life, and the thought of the writer or reformer.” – Leo Tolstoy

59. “Don’t let the culture influence your message, let your message influence the culture.” – Mike Huckabee

60. “Culture was actually humanity’s attempt to extend the womb.” – Christopher Dawson

More culture quotes and sayings

61. “Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of
differences.”- Mikhail Gorbachev

62. “The triumph of culture is to overpower nationality.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

63. “The crucial differences which distinguish human societies and human beings are not biological. They are cultural.” – Ruth Benedict

64. “No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.” – James Baldwin

65. “Culture is not made up but something that evolves which is human.” – Edward T. Hall

66. “It’s part of our pop culture to give animals human personalities and talents.” – Neil Degrasse Tyson

67. “Culture is the bedrock, the final wall, against which one leans one’s back in a godforsaken chaos.” – J.C. Powys

68. “That is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all.” – Henry Ward Beecher

69. “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” – Marcus Garvey

70. “If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.” – Eckhart Tolle

Culture quotes about music, food, fashion, and other things

71. “A mind cannot be independent of culture.” — Lev Vygotsky

72. “Fashion is part of our culture, and it’s about more than just a pretty dress.” — Joan Smalls

73. “What colonialism does is cause an identity crisis about one’s own culture.” — Lupita Nyong’o

74. “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” — Ray Bradbury

75. “Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being.” — Thomas Carlyle

76. “Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.” — Elie Wiesel

77. “I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” — Billy Joel

78. “​Though music transcends language, culture and time, and though notes are the same, Indian music is unique because it is evolved, sophisticated and melodies are defined.” — Dayananda Saraswati

79. “Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat.” — Guy Fieri

80. “The truth is the Super Bowl long ago became more than just a football game. It’s part of our culture like turkey at Thanksgiving and lights at Christmas, and like those holidays beyond their meaning, a factor in our economy.” — Bob Schieffer

Short culture quotes

81. “Food is a lens for culture.” — Dana Goodyear

82. “The future of architecture is culture.” — Philip Johnson

83. “In human life, economics precedes politics or culture.” — Park Geun-hye

84. “I think dance in any culture, in any form, is a true leveler.” — Baz Luhrmann

85. “In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.” — Abbas Kiarostami

86. “I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.” — Wole Soyinka

87. “Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.” — Matthew Arnold

88. “Our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any.” — David Shields

89. “Mythology is a subjective truth. Every culture imagines life a certain way.” — Devdutt Pattanaik

90. “Culture is perishing in overproduction, in an avalanche of words, in the madness of quantity.” — Milan Kundera

Culture quotes on what it’s made of

91. “Any good teacher knows how important it is to connect with students and understand our culture.” –Adora Svitak

92. “Music is critical in our lives and culture. It’s the inspiration that drives us. It’s also the window to our souls. It’s a reflection as to who we are, what we stand for and where we’re going.” –Bill Walton

93. “The moment you give up your principles, and your values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period.” –Oriana Fallaci

94. “Food is culture. Food is an identity, a footprint of who you are.” –Lidia Bastianich

95. “Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it’s popular, it’s not culture.” –Vivienne Westwood

96. “Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it’s popular, it’s not culture.” –America Ferrera

97. “Mexico and the U.S. are bound not only because of the common border, but by a shared culture and history.” –Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

98. “Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall.” –Brian Chesky

99. “Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall.” –Anais Nin

100. “Being Indian is not blood as much as it is culture.” –Tony Hillerman

Culture Quotes For Celebrating Your Norms

101. “The greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals.” — Siddharth Katragadda 

102. “A culture disconnected from wild nature becomes insane.” — Toby Hemenway 

103. “Culture is a slingshot moved by the force of its past.” — Barbara Kingsolver 

104. “Cultures are virtual realities made of language.” — Terence McKenna 

105. “The effectiveness of a new culture depends on the strength of the people behind the change and the strength of the pre-existing culture.” — Steve Gruenert 

106. “Culture opens the sense of beauty.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson 

107. “Culture means control over nature.” — Johan Huizinga 

108. “In an immature society culture is an import; for a mature one it is a native manufacture which eventually becomes an export.” — Northrop Frye 

109. “Everything is arranged so that it be this way, this is what is called culture.” — Jacques Derrida 

110. “I just think that some version of the past in our culture is going to rise up and become dominant.” — Peter Davison 

Culture Quotes to Make You Understand Different Lifestyles

111. “Culture is what defines us as a community, as a people, and if we’re not careful, as individuals. Culture plays an important role in life.” — Adam Butler

112. “I love to hike and travel and see different cultures. I like to get out, walk around, talk to people, watch them do life, and practice all of their customs.” — Bob Roberts

113. “Only when we experience different cultures do we realize the immense differences between various cultures and ours.” — Tabor Laughlin

114. “Culture makes us unique and special. They should also inherit this, but this can happen only if we preserve it.” — Nico van Oudenhoven

115. “Because culture makes me the person that I am, I value my culture and there is so much that I feel but cannot explain.” — Dolores Delgado Bernal

116. “Contact with another culture can lead to reflection on one’s own culture, which then seems less a matter of course.” — Bob Elsen

117. “Personal culture makes us unique, not one’s enemy; One can’t compare their beauty to another’s deformity.” — Steven A. Funes

118. “We are all cultural beings able to navigate successfully in our culture, learning about the meaning of the different social groups within it.” — Perry R. Hinton

119. “Much of what individuals assume to be individual “choice” is instead culturally constructed and automatic.” — Elsie Jones-Smith

120. “I have an awareness of the world around me. I explore and learn about different cultures.” — Derek G. Waller

Culture Quotes About People’s Norm

121. “Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture.” — Howard Schultz

122. “Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.” — Hermann Hesse

123. “We’re warriors, this culture, and we’re very puritanical about sex and very embracing about violence and I don’t know why that is.” — Mark Ruffalo

124. “ It is out of culture that the substance of real revolutions is made.”Walter Lippmann

125. “A free culture is not a culture without property; it is not a culture in which artists don’t get paid.” — Lawrence Lessig

126. “But the idea that women can’t take care of themselves still permeates our culture.” — Katherine Dunn

127. “What makes cookbooks interesting is to find out about the people and the culture that invented the food.” — Vincent Schiavelli

128. “Yeah, I don’t deal with current events or pop culture, and I avoid politics like the plague.” — Max Cannon

129. “The things that I draw on, and the world that I feel part of, aren’t particularly youth culture.” — Robert Wyatt

130. “I think it talks about that there needs to be some proactive attack against drugs infiltrating our culture.” — Joe Morton

Culture Quotes To Help You Celebrate Our Diversity

131. “Humans can’t exist without a culture—without culture life would be meaningless.” ― Joni S. Sancken

132. “Whatever you say about popular culture, people like people who know things, who are experts, and it doesn’t particularly matter what they look like.” ― Mary Beard

133. “Jazz is not popular culture. Jazz is in the same position in our culture as classical music. A very small minority of people really love it.” ― John Corigliano

134. “Do not let your assumptions about a culture block your ability to perceive the individual, or you will fail.” ― Brandon Sanderson

135. “In this huge old occidental culture our teaching elders are books. Books are our grandparents!” ― Gary Snyder

136. “Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change.” ― John Podhoretz

137. “If we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture, we must be willing to go down into the recreating silences.” ― Richard Foster

138. “Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity are more essential than ever in a world where peoples are becoming more and more closely interconnected.” — Kofi Annan

139. “I’ve learned that, at certain points, even if we’re of such different cultures, we can think alike, and understand each other easier than we may expect.” ― Tamuna Tsertsvadze

140. “If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.” ― Mary Douglas

Culture Quotes to Cultivate Understanding

141. “Culture is a way of life for an entire society, whereas creativity is a way of life for the creative individual.” ― Edith Schaeffer

142. “Culture is like a breathed atmosphere in which we live, breathe, and have our being.” ― Edwin Hubbel Chapin

143. “Culture is the arts enhanced by great literature and historic continuity, together with reverence for law and the learning of the great minds of the past.” ― Harold J. Laski

144. “Culture is the sum of all the forms of art, of love, and of thought, which, in the course of centuries, have enabled man to be less enslaved.” ― Andre Malraux

145. “Culture is the foundation of our society and the expression of our heritage.” ― Madeleine Albright

146. “Culture is the set of transmitted and learned behavior patterns, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought that characterize the functioning of particular population.” ― Clifford Geertz

147. “Culture is the context in which we live our lives.” ― Shashi Tharoor

148. “Culture is like a river, always changing, always flowing, and always influencing those who live near it.” ― Rick Warren

149. “Culture is the hallmark of a civilized society.” ― George S. Patton

150. “Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

Learn to embrace culture

After reading the culture quotes above, what can you do to embrace culture in your life and community?

Look for ways to learn about and appreciate the diverse cultures that are around you.

Instead of being fearful of things that are different from you begin to look for the things that you can learn from it. 

When we are able to take this approach to culture, it will change everything in our society.

This is why it’s important to protect your own culture while also respecting that of others.

In the end, if we can learn to appreciate each other and our differences, we will be better together.  

What’s your biggest takeaway from these culture quotes and sayings?

Do you have any other insightful quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.