“We are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong”

— Gregory Bateson , book Steps to an Ecology of Mind

Source: Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972), p. 461

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Gregory Bateson 49

English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual … 1904–1980

Roy Littlesun (1934)

“Most of us know, now, that Rousseau was wrong: that man, when you knock his chains off, sets up the death camps. Soon we shall know everything the eighteenth century didn't know, and nothing it did, and it will be hard to live with us.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

"On the Underside of the Stone," The New York Times Book Review (1953-08-23) [p. 177]
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

“Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why — which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive.”

Jon Krakauer (1954) American outdoors writer and journalist

Author's Remarks.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003)
Context: I don't know what God is, or what God had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair, or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty. There are some ten thousand religious sects — each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong but are instruments of evil, besides. None of the ten thousand has yet persuaded me to make the requisite leap of faith. In the absence of conviction, I've come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain — which doesn't strike me as something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief. And if I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why — which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive.

“I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed.”

Max Born (1882–1970) physicist

Experiment and Theory in Physics (1943), p. 44
Context: I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed. We do not find signposts at crossroads, but our own scouts erect them, to help the rest.

“We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like – the anti-war government nig– uh, the – America was a source for division around the world, that what we were doing was wrong.”

Rick Santorum (1958) American politician

2012-03-30
Rick Santorum: another slip of the tongue but was it the 'N-word'?
Paul
Harris
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/30/rick-santorum-slip-n-word
2012-04-03

“I suppose not many people dress up with insults to go out. We, the homosexuals, have no other choice. Insults are for us almost an epistemological variable: we have learned to know our fellow beings -for, as much as it surprises us, they are our fellow beings- through their insults, and they, on the other hand, have learned to know us in spite of the exhausting job -a hard duty impossed by society- of insulting us.”

Miss Shangay Lily (1963–2016) Spanish artivist and drag queen

Miss Shangay Lily, Mari, ¿me pasas el poppers?

“Where he's wrong is that we went into Iraq at the invitation of the government, not as an invasion.”

Dick Morris (1947) American political commentator and consultant

Hannity & Colmes
Television
2008-08-22
Fox News, quoted in * Dick Morris: ‘We Went Into Iraq At The Invitation Of The Government, Not As An Invasion’
2008-08-22
Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/08/22/28028/dick-morris-iraq-stumped/

“We always see the worst in our selves. Our most volnerable selves. We need someone to get close enough to tell us that we're wrong. Someone we trust.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

“Even though we often mess up, most of us are doing the best that we know how with the circumstances that surround us.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Source: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life

“We always see our worst selves. Our most vulnerable selves. We need someone else to get close enough to tell us we’re wrong. Someone we trust.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

“We are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong”

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Gregory Bateson 49

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