Mary Catherine Bateson

“Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.”

“Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food.”

“Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.”

“The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy.”

“Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.”

“No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a really nice man who wishes she were not.”

“The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it.”

“The family is changing, not disappearing. We have to broaden our understanding of it, look for the new metaphors.”

“There are few things as toxic as a bad metaphor. You can't think without metaphors.”

“Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten.”

“An encounter with other cultures can lead to openness only if you can suspend the assumption of superiority, not seeing new worlds to conquer, but new worlds to respect.”

“Fluidity and discontinuity are central to the reality in which we live.”

“Real winners in a rapidly changing world will be those who are open to alternatives and able to respect and value those who are different.”