Mary Catherine Bateson Quotes

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Affirmations Improvisation Metaphor Peace

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

Mary Catherine Bateson

Graduation, Educational, Memorable

Mary Catherine Bateson (2004). “Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery”

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The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Inspirational, Inspiring, Thinking

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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 life.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Life, Art, Morning

Mary Catherine Bateson (2004). “Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery”

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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

Color, Vision, Culture

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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.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Believe, Diversity, Understanding

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

Mary Catherine Bateson

Thinking, Toxic, Metaphor

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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 time. Unless teachers can hold up a model of lifelong learning and adaptation, graduates are likely to find themselves trapped into obsolescence as the world changes around them. 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

Life, Teacher, Moving

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.14, Grove Press

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Wherever a story comes from, whether it is a familiar myth or a private memory, the retelling exemplifies the making of a connection from one pattern to another: a potential translation in which narrative becomes parable and the once upon a time comes to stand for some renascent truth. This approach applies to all the incidents of everyday life: the phrase in the newspaper, the endearing or infuriating game of a toddler, the misunderstanding at the office. Our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Memories, Thinking, Games

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

Mary Catherine Bateson

Teacher, Teaching, Lessons

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When parents die, all of the partings of the past are reevoked with the realization that this time they will not return.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Past, Parent, Realization

Mary Catherine Bateson (1985). “With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson”, Pocket Books

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The past empowers the present, and the sweeping footsteps leading to this present mark the pathways to the future.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Past, Empowering, Pathways

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

Mary Catherine Bateson

Sacred, Natural, Conventions

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.57, Grove Press

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Improvisation and new learning are not private processes; they are shared with others at every age. We are called to join in a dance whose steps must be learned along the way, so it is important to attend and respond. Even in uncertainty, we are responsible for our steps.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Important, Age, Way

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Solutions to problems often depend upon how they're defined.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Problem, Defined, Depends

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

Mary Catherine Bateson

Change, Death, Giving

Mary Catherine Bateson (1984). “With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson”, William Morrow & Company

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A glad welcome to this affirmation by a group of psychologists that the self does not stop at the skin nor even with the circle of human relationships but is interwoven with the lives of trees and animals and soil; that caring for the deepest needs of persons and caring for our threatened planet are not in conflict.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Caring, Animal, Self

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...a disgruntled reflection on my own life as a sort of desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conflicting elements to fit rapidly changing settings.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Reflection, Trying, Elements

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.3, Grove Press

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Sharing is sometimes
more demanding than giving.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Peace, Memorable, Knowledge

Mary Catherine Bateson (2007). “Composing a Life”, p.111, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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Caring can be learned by all human beings, can be worked into the design of every life, meeting an individual need as well as a pervasive need in society.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Memorable, Caring, Design

Mary Catherine Bateson (1990). “Composing a Life”, Plume

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Improvisation can be either a last resort or an established way of evoking creativity.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Creativity, Way, Lasts

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.4, Grove Press

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Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Goal, Blinkers, Goals And Objectives

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.6, Grove Press

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The critical question about regret is whether experience led to growth and new learning. Some people seem to keep on making the same mistakes, while others at least make new ones. Regret and remorse can be either paralyzing or inspiring. [p. 199]

Mary Catherine Bateson

Regret, Mistake, People

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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

Inspirational, Memorable, Stopping

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.14, Grove Press

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Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Food, Cooking, Culinary

Mary Catherine Bateson (1985). “With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson”, Pocket Books

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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.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Thinking, Cost, Done

Mary Catherine Bateson (2001). “Composing a Life”, p.205, Grove Press

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Born: December 8, 1939
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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