Gregory Bateson

In no system which shows mental characteristics can any part have unilateral control over the whole. In other words, the mental characteristics…

— Gregory Bateson

Perhaps the attempt to achieve grace by identification with the animals was the most sensitive thing which was tried in the whole…

— Gregory Bateson

There are many matters and many circumstances in which consciousness is undesirable and silence is golden, so that secrecy can be used…

— Gregory Bateson

Numbers are the product of counting. Quantities are the product of measurement. This means that numbers can conceivably be accurate because there…

— Gregory Bateson

All experience is subjective.

— Gregory Bateson

If a man achieves or suffers change in premises which are deeply embedded in his mind, he will surely find that the…

— Gregory Bateson

Most of us have lost that sense of unity of biosphere and humanity which would bind and reassure us all with an…

— Gregory Bateson

It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should be in step with how we conduct…

— Gregory Bateson

It is impossible, in principle, to explain any pattern by invoking a single quantity.

— Gregory Bateson

Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.

— Gregory Bateson

Perhaps there is no such thing as unilateral power. After all, the man in power depends on receiving information all the time…

— Gregory Bateson

Evolution has long been badly taught. In particular, students - and even professional biologists - acquire theories of evolution without any deep…

— Gregory Bateson

Some tools of thought are so blunt that they are almost useless; others are so sharp that they are dangerous. But the…

— Gregory Bateson

Women watched for the spectacular performances of the men, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the presence of an audience…

— Gregory Bateson

Science probes; it does not prove.

— Gregory Bateson

The meaning of your communication is the response you get.

— Gregory Bateson

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

— Gregory Bateson

It is to the Riddle of the Sphinx that I have devoted fifty years of professional life as an anthropologist.

— Gregory Bateson

Play is the establishment and exploration of relationship.

— Gregory Bateson