Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

Man is unable to see himself entirely unrelated to mankind, neither is he able to see mankind unrelated to life, nor life unrelated to the universe.

It can no longer be maintained that the properties of any one thing in the universe are independent of the existence or non-existence of everything else. It is, at last, no longer sensible to speak of a universe with only one thing in it.

There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.

For most people, the major hurdle in grasping modern insights into the nature of the universe is that these developments are usually phrased using mathematics.

Just as the individual is not alone in the group, nor any one in society alone among the others, so man is not alone in the universe.

Nothing to do with anything, something to do with everything.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

We are so bound together that no man can labor for himself alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf helps to mold the universe.

God may exist, but science can explain the universe without the need for a creator.

Things explain each other, not themselves.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

Independence ... is middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth

We have to move from our devotion to independence, through an understanding of interdependence

Seeing everything means recognizing the ultimate fact that all things that exist are mutually connected into a single whole, even if the connections between them are not yet known to us.

Whenever you need something from someone else before you can move forward, it's a dependency. We believe dependencies slow people down. We want people to be more independent, because that will keep them moving forward.

I don't see any independent position that I'm in; it's rather inter-dependent.

The sort of dependence that results from exchange, i.e., from commercial transactions, is a reciprocal dependence. We cannot be dependent upon a foreigner without his being dependent on us. Now, this is what constitutes the very essence of society. To sever natural interrelations is not to make oneself independent, but to isolate oneself completely.

Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair or good alone.

Our dependence outweighs our independence, for we are independent only in our desire, while we are dependent on our health, on nature, on society, on everything in us and outside us.

Let us look at wealth and poverty. The affluent society and the deprived society inter-are. The wealth of one society is made of the poverty of the other. "This is like this, because that is like that." Wealth is made of non-wealth elements, and poverty is made by non-poverty elements. [...] so we must be careful not to imprison ourselves in concepts. The truth is that everything contains everything else. We cannot just be, we can only inter-be. We are responsible fo everything that happens around us.

There is no Jesus without Judas, no Martin Luther King, Jr., without the Klan; no Ali without Joe Frazier; no freedom without tyranny. No wisdom exists that does not include perspective. Relativity is the greatest gift.

Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make

It's simple. Nothing exists except in relation to something else.

I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos.

The ordinary marriage is an unconscious bondage: you cannot live alone so you become dependent on the other; the other cannot live alone so he or she becomes dependent on you. And we hate the person on which we are dependent; nobody likes to depend on anybody. Our deepest desire is to have freedom, total freedom - and dependence is against freedom.