But the myth of power is, of course, a very powerful myth, and probably most people in this world more or less believe in it. It is a myth, which, if everybody believes in it, becomes to that extent self-validating. But it is still epistemological lunacy and leads inevitably to various sorts of disaster.

Gregory Bateson

Categorized in : Believe Self Powerful

The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.

Gregory Bateson

differences nature thinking

The meaning of your communication is the response you get.

Gregory Bateson

response communication

We can never be quite clear whether we are referring to the world as it is or to the world as we see it.

Gregory Bateson

referring clear world

Yes, metaphor. That's how the whole fabric of mental interconnections holds together. Metaphor is right at the bottom of being alive.

Gregory Bateson

fabric alive together

Information is a difference that makes a difference.

Gregory Bateson

making-a-difference information differences

It takes two to know one.

Gregory Bateson

knows two

The only way out is spiritual, intellectual, and emotional revolution in which, finally, we learn to experience first hand the interloping connections between person and person, organism and organism, action and consequence.

Gregory Bateson

emotional spiritual hands

Without context words and actions have no meaning at all

Gregory Bateson

words-and-actions action

A man walking is never in balance, but always correcting for imbalance.

Gregory Bateson

balance walking men

What is the pattern that connects the crab to the lobster and the primrose to the orchid, and all of them to me, and me to you?

Gregory Bateson

orchids patterns lobster

What is true is that the idea of power corrupts. Power corrupts most rapidly those who believe in it, and it is they who will want it most. Obviously, our democratic system tends to give power to those who hunger for it and gives every opportunity to those who don't want power to avoid getting it. Not a very satisfactory arrangement if power corrupts those who believe in it and want it.

Gregory Bateson

opportunity believe ideas

If a man achieves or suffers change in premises which are deeply embedded in his mind, he will surely find that the results of that change will ramify throughout his whole universe.

Gregory Bateson

suffering mind men

The creature that wins against its environment destroys itself.

Gregory Bateson

environment creatures winning

Wisdom is the intelligence of the system as a whole.

Gregory Bateson

whole

I shall argue that the problem of grace is fundamentally a problem of integration and what is to be integrated is the diverse parts of the mind - especially those multiple levels of which one extreme is called 'consciousness' and the other the 'unconscious'

Gregory Bateson

levels grace mind

Somebody was saying to Picasso that he ought to make pictures of things the way they are-objective pictures. He mumbled that he wasn't quite sure what that would be. The person who was bullying him produced a photograph of his wife from his wallet and said, "There, you see, that is a picture of how she really is." Picasso looked at it and said, "She is rather small, isn't she? And flat?"

Gregory Bateson

bullying perspective wife

There are times when I catch myself believing that there is such a thing as something; which is separate from something else.

Gregory Bateson

believe

Pathology is a relatively easy thing to discuss, health is very difficult. This, of course, is one of the reasons why there is such a thing as the sacred, and why the sacred is difficult to talk about, because the sacred is peculiarly related to the healthy. One does not like to disturb the sacred, for in general, to talk about something changes it, and perhaps will turn it into a pathology.

Gregory Bateson

healthy doe religion

We are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong

Gregory Bateson

epistemology knows

The pathology is to want control, not that you ever get it, because of

Gregory Bateson

pathology courses want