The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it. — Mary Catherine Bateson Death Copy Share Image
Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten. — Mary Catherine Bateson Fear Copy Share Image
“... active wisdom --an entire cohort with something new to offer to the world as years of experience combined with continuing health. [p. 52]” — Mary Catherine Bateson Age Copy Share Image
“So this little boy was--I became her confidant a little too early, I think. It didn't seem to warp me exactly, but… — Mary Catherine Bateson Too early Copy Share Image
The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy. — Mary Catherine Bateson Capacity Copy Share Image
Insight, I believe, refers to the depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and… — Mary Catherine Bateson Believe Copy Share Image
Human beings tend to regard the conventions of their own societies as natural, often as sacred. — Mary Catherine Bateson Conventions Copy Share Image
We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn. — Mary Catherine Bateson Education Copy Share Image
In many ways, constancy is an illusion. After all, our ancestors were immigrants, many of them moving on every few years; today… — Mary Catherine Bateson Adaptation Copy Share Image
When any relationship is characterized by difference, particularly a disparity in power, there remains a tendency to model it on the parent-child-relationship.… — Mary Catherine Bateson Benevolence Copy Share Image
Every loss recapitulates earlier losses, but every affirmation of identity echoes earlier moments of clarity. — Mary Catherine Bateson Affirmation Copy Share Image
Jazz exemplifies artistic activity that is at once individual and communal, performance that is both repetitive and innovative, each participant sometimes providing… — Mary Catherine Bateson Activity Copy Share Image
“As people grow older, some of the ways they have contributed in the past may no longer be possible, but the challenge… — Mary Catherine Bateson Age Copy Share Image
... as we age we have not only to readdress earlier developmental crises but also somehow to find the way to three… — Mary Catherine Bateson Affirmation Copy Share Image
As you get up in the morning, as you make decisions, as you spend money, make friends, make commitments, you are creating… — Mary Catherine Bateson Art Copy Share Image
Learning to savor the vertigo of doing without answers or making do with fragmentary ones opens up the pleasures of recognizing and… — Mary Catherine Bateson Answers Copy Share Image
Rarely is it possible to study all of the instructions to a game before beginning to play, or to memorize the manual… — Mary Catherine Bateson Adrenaline Copy Share Image
Caring can be learned by all human beings, can be worked into the design of every life, meeting an individual need as… — Mary Catherine Bateson Caring Copy Share Image
Orthodox Judaism is a thicket of detailed injunctions, Biblical commandments elaborated during centuries of prohibited proselytizing, functioning to limit interaction with outsiders.… — Mary Catherine Bateson Believer Copy Share Image
I had repeatedly accepted inappropriate burdens, stepping in to do what needed to be done. In retrospect, I think I carried them… — Mary Catherine Bateson Accepted Copy Share Image
...a disgruntled reflection on my own life as a sort of desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something… — Mary Catherine Bateson Desperate Copy Share Image
Most higher education is devoted to affirming the traditions and origins of an existing elite and transmitting them to new members. — Mary Catherine Bateson Affirming Copy Share Image
We do not need to understand other people and their customs fully to interact with them and learn in the process; it… — Mary Catherine Bateson Certain Copy Share Image
