Quotes By Mary Catherine Bateson

Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.

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

Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food.

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.