Gregory Bateson Quotes

“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.”

“All experience is subjective.”

“In the transmission of human culture, people always attempt to replicate, to pass on to the next generation the skills and values of the parents, but the attempt always fails because cultural transmission is geared to learning, not DNA.”

“Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.”

“Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.”

“Whatever the ups and downs of detail within our limited experience the larger whole is primarily beautiful.”

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

“Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.”

“The Christian tradition was passed on to me as a great rich mixture a bouillabaisse of human imagination and wonder brewed from the richness of individual lives.”

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