A population of four million is not quantitatively but qualitatively different from an individual, because it involves systems of interaction among the individuals.

Gear-shifting is thus a phenomenon of a higher logical type than giving gas, and it would be patently nonsensical to talk about the mechanics of complex gears in the language of the thermodynamics of fuel supply.

Another property of a group is that one may combine its members in varying sequence, yet the outcome of the combination remains the same.

To avoid a frequent misunderstanding, it cannot be emphasized too strongly that symmetry and complementarity in communication are not ins and by themselves “good” or “bad”, “normal” or “abnormal”, etc. The two concepts simply refer tp two basic categories into which all communicational interchanges can be divided.

When Paul announced himself in a rather formal way to the secretary, he said simply, “I am Watzlawick.” She suspected he was a new psychiatric patient showing up for an appointment at the wrong time, and she interpreted his introduction as, “I am not Slavic.

Usually a person relates to another under the tacit assumption thatthe other shares his view of reality, that indeed there is only onereality...

Wer als Werkzeug nur einen Hammer hat, sieht in jedem Problem einen Nagel.

Maturity is doing what you think is best, even when your mother thinks it’s a good idea.

There is in the nature of human communication no way of making another person a participant in information or perception available exclusively to oneself.

It is difficult to imagine how any behavior in the presence of another person can avoid being a communication of one’s own view of the nature of one’s relationship with that person and how it can fail to influence that person.