Jazz exemplifies artistic activity that is at once individual and communal, performance that is both repetitive and innovative, each participant sometimes providing background support and sometimes flying free.
MARY CATHERINE BATESONMost higher education is devoted to affirming the traditions and origins of an existing elite and transmitting them to new members.
More Mary Catherine Bateson Quotes
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The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it.
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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.
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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.
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Fluidity and discontinuity are central to the reality in which we live.
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Monotony and repetition are characteristic of many parts of life, but these do not become sources of conscious discomfort until novelty and entertainment are built up as positive experiences.
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The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy.
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Improvisation can be either a last resort or an established way of evoking creativity.
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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.
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Solutions to problems often depend upon how they’re defined.
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The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.
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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.
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Often continuity is visible only in retrospect.
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We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.
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The family is changing not disappearing. We have to broaden our understanding of it, look for the new metaphors.
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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.
MARY CATHERINE BATESON