Gregory Bateson's Quotes

A major difficulty is that the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is partly a product of the answers that we already have given to the riddle in its various forms.

If we pursue this matter further, we shall be told that the stable object is unchanging under the impact or stress of some particular external or internal variable or, perhaps, that it resists the passage of time.

It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should be in step with how we conduct our civilisation, and this should in turn be in step with the actual workings of living systems.

It is, I claim, nonsense to say that it does not matter which individual man acted as the nucleus for the change. It is precisely this that makes history unpredictable into the future.

Official education was telling people almost nothing of the nature of all those things on the seashores, and in the redwood forests, in the deserts and in the plains.

Synaptic summation is the technical term used in neurophysiology for those instances in which some neuron C is fired only by a combination of neurons A and B.

There is a strong tendency in explanatory prose to invoke quantities of tension, energy, and whatnot to explain the genesis of pattern. I believe that all such explanations are inappropriate or wrong.

To think straight, it is advisable to expect all qualities and attributes, adjectives, and so on to refer to at least two sets of interactions in time.

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

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

Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food.

Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.

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

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

Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.

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.

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.

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

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

I am not a member of the CIA or any other intelligence agency.

What I learned from my father is to think big.

I can tell you that today 99% of my investments are in Brazil and will remain here.

You cannot exist as a $20 billion company with speculation.

Finding oil is a multidisciplinary science. You need a lot of people - statisticians, engineers, and geologists, of course. And what I have learned in the past 30 years is that I read people better than I read books.

I was educated to think maybe Brazil works, maybe it doesn't. But I decided I am going to make this country work for my children. I am investing all my effort now in making Brazil a great country.

To be powerful in South America, you have to be transparent and you have to have a very clean reputation. Transparency for me today is a magic word in South America. Power comes from transparency and a track record of execution.