Gregory Bateson Quotes

Everything in large doses is gonna kill you. Even happiness.

The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased.

Of course, we all need to have basic necessities met, such as good health care, good food, good education and good housing. But what is good? Having too much is bad, as having too little is also bad.

I want the people of the Philippines to be happy, even if they have nothing.

Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three - and paradise is when you have none.

I figure if I have my health, can pay the rent and I have my friends, I call it 'content.'

In the scope of a happy life, a messy desk or an overstuffed coat closet is a trivial thing, yet I find - and I hear from other people that they agree - that getting rid of clutter gives a disproportionate boost to happiness.

I am a very simple guy. Of course, popularity matters a lot, but for me, my health and family come first.

You can get too involved with all the wee things in life, but the most important thing is you're alive and well.

We become happier not by accumulating more things but by creating richer experiences

I don't have to have the biggest house or the biggest car or the longest mink, but quality of life is really glamorous.

My whole thing is quality of life. . .It must always be easy and low-maintenance and stress-free, and that means not trying to fit too much in. I don’t ever want to be in a hurry. I want to enjoy the moments.

Lifestyle. Not a word at all, really - rather a wordette. A genuine case of more is less. ... the word life and the word style are, except in rare cases (and chances are that you're not of them), mutually exclusive.

Why were we driven out of Paradise? Why did we fall into this gnawing disease of unappeasable dissatisfaction? Not because we sinned. Ah, no. All the animals in Paradise enjoyed the sensual passion of coition. Not because we sinned. But because we got sex into our head.

I find that the standard of living does not go up in proportion with the cost of living. The trick in life is to do things that are fun all the time.

What good to us is a long life if it is difficult and barren of joys, and if it is so full of misery that we can only welcome death as a deliverer?

Nature is content with little; grace with less; but lust with nothing.

Economy is going without something you do want in case you should, some day, want something you probably won't want.

Happiness. We're tearing our hair out to try to find a definition of it, for heaven's sake. Is it joy? People will tell you that it isn't, that joy is a fleeting emotion, a moment of happiness, which is always welcome, mind you. And then what about pleasure, huh? Oh, yes, that's easy, everybody knows what that is, but there again it doesn't last. But is happiness not the sum total of lots of small joys and pleasures, huh?

Simplified spelling is all right, but, like chastity, you can carry it too far.

The more I think about sex, the better it gets. Here we have a purpose in life, good for the blood circulation, good for releasing the tension.

You start out playing rock 'n' roll so you can have sex and do drugs, but you end up doing drugs so you can still play rock 'n' roll and have sex.

Less is more only when more is too much.

With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life.