Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten.
Mary Catherine Bateson

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

Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.
Mary Catherine Bateson

Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food.
Mary Catherine Bateson

No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a really nice man who wishes she were not.
Mary Catherine Bateson

Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.
Mary Catherine Bateson

Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.
Mary Catherine Bateson

The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy.
Mary Catherine Bateson

The family is changing, not disappearing. We have to broaden our understanding of it, look for the new metaphors.
Mary Catherine Bateson

The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it.
Mary Catherine Bateson

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