66 Quotes by Mary Catherine Bateson

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

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.

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

I had repeatedly accepted inappropriate burdens, stepping in to do what needed to be done. In retrospect, I think I carried them well, but the cost was that I was chronically overloaded, weary, and short of time for politicking, smoothing ruffled feathers, and simply resting.

The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.

Insight, I believe, refers to the depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and old, side by side, learning by letting them speak to one another.

We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.

A suprising number of physicians manage to continue to care about persons even after the rigors of medical training.