It is impossible, in principle, to explain any pattern by invoking a single quantity. Gregory Bateson More Quotes by Gregory Bateson More Quotes From Gregory Bateson 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
