Today a Facebook friend posted a quote she attributed to Gandhi:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Gandhi didn’t say that, I thought to myself, that’s Margaret Mead’s quote.
Except that it isn’t Margaret Mead’s quote, either. One of the earliest print references the is on page 79 of the book Earth at Omega: Passage to Planetization, by Donald Keys. Another item on Wikiquote says it was on T-shirts seen at a 1960s protest, though I haven’t seen any proof of this.
A bit more searching on The Internets brings one to the Institute for Intercultural Studies, where question 1 on the FAQ is about the source of this quote:
Although the Institute has received many inquiries about this famous admonition by Margaret Mead, we have been unable to locate when and where it was first cited, becoming a motto for many organizations and movements. We believe it probably came into circulation through a newspaper report of something said spontaneously and informally. We know, however, that it was firmly rooted in her professional work and that it reflected a conviction that she expressed often, in different contexts and phrasings.
So, even the Institute doesn’t know where the quote came from. This didn’t stop the Institute from trademarking the quote:
This quote is now trademarked, and the trademark is held by Sevanne Kassarjian, New York.
Use of the quote for commercial purposes without charge is strictly prohibited.
Use of the quote for partisan causes is strictly prohibited.
The Institute says the quote sums up what Mead wrote in Continuities of Cultural Evolution but Google Book Search doesn’t return any hits for the quote. Google’s search isn’t the be-all, end-all for tracking down quotes, but if someone notable like Margaret Mead truly is the source of the quote, it should be trivial to find the quote’s source.
So, while Sevanne Kassarjian might own the trademark to the shortened quote, that trademark doesn’t apply to the longer form (with the “indeed” part) and anyone should be able to use the quote without restriction. It appears that Margaret Mead didn’t own the quote any more than anyone else, too.