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…

- Mary Catherine Bateson

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

- Mary Catherine Bateson

Human beings tend to regard the conventions of their own societies as natural, often as sacred.

- Mary Catherine Bateson

What would it be like to have not only color vision but culture vision, the ability to see the multiple worlds of others.

- Mary Catherine Bateson

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

- Mary Catherine Bateson

In many ways, constancy is an illusion. After all, our ancestors were immigrants, many of them moving on every few years; today we are migrants in t…

- Mary Catherine Bateson

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 w…

- Mary Catherine Bateson

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

- Mary Catherine Bateson

As you get up in the morning, as you make decisions, as you spend money, make friends, make commitments, you are creating a piece of art called your …

- Mary Catherine Bateson