108 Quotes by Gregory Bateson

Those who lack all idea that it is possible to be wrong can learn nothing except know-how.

Things have to be done fast in America , and therefore therapy has to be brief.

What is true is that the idea of power corrupts. Power corrupts most rapidly those who believe in it, and it is they who will want it most. Obviously, our democratic system tends to give power to those who hunger for it and gives every opportunity to those who don't want power to avoid getting it. Not a very satisfactory arrangement if power corrupts those who believe in it and want it.

Science probes; it does not prove.

Most of us have lost that sense of unity of biosphere and humanity which would bind and reassure us all with an affirmation of beauty. Most of us do not today believe that whatever the ups and down of detail within our limited experience, the larger whole is primarily beautiful.

The map is not the territory (coined by Alfred Korzybski), and the name is not the thing named.

The creature that wins against its environment destroys itself.

What is the pattern that connects the crab to the lobster and the primrose to the orchid, and all of them to me, and me to you?

There are times when I catch myself believing that there is such a thing as something; which is separate from something else.