Mary Douglas

"I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too."

"If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization."

"Real equality is immensely difficult to achieve, it needs continual revision and monitoring of distributions. And it does not provide buffers between members, so they are continually colliding or frustrating each other."

"Mormons... are so strong, they can handle wealth, they are confident. I think it is because they are not bogged down by rules for equality, but have a firmly defined system of relative status and responsible command."

"Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination."

"If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny."