Gregory Bateson Quotes

The real energy occurs in each connection between two people, which can bring about exponential returns.

I'm really interested in how we understand each other - and whether we can understand each other.

The power of getting to know one another is so immense, eclipsed only by first getting to know ourselves.

Self-knowledge involves relationship. To know oneself is to study one self in action with another person. Relationship is a process of self evaluation and self revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself - to be is to be related.

Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?

The measure of a conversation is how much mutual recognition there is in it; how much shared there is in it. If you're talking about what's in your own head, or without thought to what people looking and listening will feel, you might as well be in a room talking to yourself.

If you're living completely on your own, break out of solitary confinement. Seek to understand others, and help them understand you.

What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people's dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats - and they in turn can listen to ours.

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.

You can't sweep other people off their feet, if you can't be swept off your own.

There's a difference between good chemistry and a bond. Chemistry is something you have with somebody you meet - or you don't. It's an intangible. It may be superficial. It's much harder to put your finger on than a bond.

Intimacy seems to be one of the major highs of life, whether it's getting to know yourself in a deeper way, or your partner, or the world and the society that you live in.

You must look into people as well as at them.

'The Room' is relationships. The room is you and me and everyone in America. That's basically what 'The Room' is.

I hope they're reminded that joy is very easy to access if you just put down your phone, look at another person, and make a human connection. You'll find a new experience that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

One of the illusions that we live by is that we can really know anybody else, and we're often surprised by traits in people that we thought we knew very well. The struggle to overcome loneliness, which is sort of our universal burden, leads us to leap to conclusions about who other people are.

In my fiction, I pursue this idea of intimacy, but also - philosophically, politically - I just feel like that's the interesting question for me. How much can we share with other people? I'm not interested in human individuality; I don't even know what that means.

Humans need to touch each other. We need to look at each other… We are human creatures, meant to be linked… So, yes, it's a gift for me to be able to look at somebody that I know or don't know, that I love or maybe not love, and to be able to connect.

I've realised that my strength is writing around people.

It's amazing how much people want to meet the other. You just got to, you know, help make it happen.

Twitter helped others to see me as a human being. And showed me their humanity, too.

To see yourself, and for others to see you, is a form of validation. I'm interested in that very mysterious and mystical way we relate to each other in the world.

If you can get to know a person, and you can really understand them, it can usually help you better understand yourself and why you believe what you believe.

I know that lack of contact creates more lack of contact, and contact creates more contact, or at least an ability to talk to with each other.

I am not bothered by the fact that I am not understood. I am bothered when I do not know others.