--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The future is unknown. Prophecy…" description: "\"“The future is unknown. Prophecy contaminates it with the past, which is why liberated people do not bother with fortunetelling or astrology, and why t..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a10/alan-wilson-watts-4665_prophecy_the-future-is-unknown-prophecy-contamina_260818.jpg" --- # The future is unknown. Prophecy contaminates it with the… ![“The future is unknown. Prophecy contaminates it with the past, which is why liberated people do not bother with fortunetelling or astrology, and why the happy traveler wanders and does not let himself be the slave of maps, guidebooks, and schedules, using them but not being used by them.” quote by Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a10/alan-wilson-watts-4665_prophecy_the-future-is-unknown-prophecy-contamina_260818.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a10/alan-wilson-watts-4665_prophecy_the-future-is-unknown-prophecy-contamina_260818.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a10/alan-wilson-watts-4665_prophecy_the-future-is-unknown-prophecy-contamina_260818.jpg) > ““The future is unknown. Prophecy contaminates it with the past, which is why liberated people do not bother with fortunetelling or astrology, and why the happy traveler wanders and does not let himself be the slave of maps, guidebooks, and schedules, using them but not being used by them.”” [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The future is unknowable; relying on prophecy or rigid plans limits freedom, so embrace wandering without being controlled by guides. **In simple terms:** Freedom comes from not being bound by predictions or strict schedules. Key Takeaway Live openly, using tools without being ruled by them. Themes freedom uncertainty wanderlust mindfulness Mood contemplative adventurous Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - travel - career planning - creative projects Key Concepts existentialism determinism non‑attachment Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance planning with openness? - What guides do you trust without being enslaved? A Different Perspective Too much spontaneity can cause instability. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Fortunetelling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fortunetelling-2571999/) [Fortunetelling Astrology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fortunetelling-astrology-2571998/) [Happy Travel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happy-travel-222503/) [Prophecy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prophecy/) [Prophecy Contaminates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prophecy-contaminates-2571997/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) [Unknown Prophecy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/unknown-prophecy-2571996/) ## Related quotes > [“Fortunetelling and other methods of clairvoyance can only show the resulting consequence of what you’re building, like the end of a mathematic equation that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robin-sacredfire/fortunetelling-and-other-methods-of-clairvoyance-can-only-show-the/) [Robin Sacredfire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robin-sacredfire/) > [“When I say something that contradicts the predictions of someone else in the past, people discredit me, not realizing that they are contradicting themselves,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robin-sacredfire/when-i-say-something-that-contradicts-the-predictions-of-someone-else/) [Robin Sacredfire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robin-sacredfire/) > [Being a visionary is a new profession, but it is really just a variant on fortunetelling, which may be the world's oldest. And its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathan-myhrvold/being-a-visionary-is-a-new-profession-but-it-is-really-just-a-variant/) [Nathan Myhrvold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathan-myhrvold/) > [“Psychic reading without spiritual guidance is futile fortunetelling at best, and fatalistic fear-mongering at worst.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthon-st-maarten/psychic-reading-without-spiritual-guidance-is-futile-fortunetelling/) [Anthon St. Maarten](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthon-st-maarten/) > [He who would travel happy must travel lite.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antoine-de-saint-exup-ry/he-who-would-travel-happy-must-travel-lite/) [Antoine de Saint-Exupery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antoine-de-saint-exup-ry/) > [“Be happy, travel the world, fall in love again and live.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie-ward/be-happy-travel-the-world-fall-in-love-again-and-live/) [Natalie Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie-ward/) > [I dont believe in happy endings, but I do believe in happy travels, because ultimately, you die at a very young age, or you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/i-dont-believe-in-happy-endings-but-i-do-believe-in-happy-travels/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I don't believe in happy endings, but I do believe in happy travels, because ultimately, you die at a very young age, or you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-clooney/i-don-t-believe-in-happy-endings-but-i-do-believe-in-happy-travels/) [George Clooney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-clooney/) > [I feel like I live out of a suitcase. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm a happy traveller.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shibani-dandekar/i-feel-like-i-live-out-of-a-suitcase-but-i-wouldn-t-trade-it-for/) [Shibani Dandekar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shibani-dandekar/) > [“Stomach full of jitters, little beasts that were second cousins to guacamolians—little green monsters that wreaked havoc in your stomach.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-kely-mcclung/stomach-full-of-jitters-little-beasts-that-were-second-cousins-to/) [William Kely McClung](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-kely-mcclung/) > [Life is self-fulfilling prophecy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/denis-waitley/life-is-self-fulfilling-prophecy/) [Denis Waitley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/denis-waitley/) > [“Surely it becomes a wise man, at a time like this, to turn to the pages of prophecy and to inquire what is yet…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dalton-lifsey/surely-it-becomes-a-wise-man-at-a-time-like-this-to-turn-to-the-pages/) [Dalton Lifsey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dalton-lifsey/) > [“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/if-i-speak-in-the-tongues-of-men-or-of-angels-but-do-not-have-love-i/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [When the government pays, health care's lack of affordability becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In health care, as in other things, government is the high-cost…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arnold-kling/when-the-government-pays-health-care-s-lack-of-affordability-becomes/) [Arnold Kling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arnold-kling/) > [The prophet who fails to present a bearable alternative and yet preaches doom is part of the trap that he postulates. Not only does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mead/the-prophet-who-fails-to-present-a-bearable-alternative-and-yet/) [Margaret Mead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mead/) ## More by Alan Wilson Watts > [“Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/advice-i-don-t-have-advice-stop-aspiring-and-start-writing-if-you-re/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [“The common mistake of the religious celibate has been to suppose that the highest spiritual life absolutely demands the renunciation of sexuality, as if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/the-common-mistake-of-the-religious-celibate-has-been-to-suppose-that/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [“Real freedom cannot exist alongside false freedom, but the abandonment of false freedom looks as if it would leave you as good as dead.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/real-freedom-cannot-exist-alongside-false-freedom-but-the-abandonment/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [“But it is not that you are something which is just watching what happens. “What happens” is just using your organism to watch itself.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/but-it-is-not-that-you-are-something-which-is-just-watching-what/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [“Read Theodore Schwenk’s marvelous book Sensitive Chaos (London, Rudolph Steiner Press, 1965),”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/read-theodore-schwenk-s-marvelous-book-sensitive-chaos-london-rudolph/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [“Idolatry is not the use of images, but confusing them with what they represent, and in this respect mental images and lofty abstractions can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/idolatry-is-not-the-use-of-images-but-confusing-them-with-what-they/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [“The more we accustom ourselves to understanding the present in terms of memory, the unknown by the known, the living by the dead, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/the-more-we-accustom-ourselves-to-understanding-the-present-in-terms/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [“We do not dance to reach a certain point on the floor, but simply to dance. 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I have always had this power. I can feel it burning within me, driving me on. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/grigori-rasputin/i-only-know-i-have-this-power-i-have-always-had-this-power-i-can-feel/) [Grigori Rasputin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/grigori-rasputin/) > [And my fear of failure has been lifelong and deep. If you are what you do- and I think my parents may have accidentally…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-lamott/and-my-fear-of-failure-has-been-lifelong-and-deep-if-you-are-what-you/) [Anne Lamott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-lamott/) > [It is not merely the multiplicity of tints, the gladness of tone, or the balminess of the air which delight in the spring; it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/novalis/it-is-not-merely-the-multiplicity-of-tints-the-gladness-of-tone-or/) [Novalis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/novalis/) > [Among all the valuable things of this world, the word is the most precious. For in the word one can find a light which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hazrat-inayat-khan/among-all-the-valuable-things-of-this-world-the-word-is-the-most/) [Hazrat Inayat Khan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hazrat-inayat-khan/) > [“if people believe this, they would act on that belief. Many a prophecy, by the mere force of its being believed, is transmuted”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaac-asimov/if-people-believe-this-they-would-act-on-that-belief-many-a-prophecy/) [Isaac Asimov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaac-asimov/) > [We were young, and we had no need for prophecies. Just living was itself an act of prophecy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/we-were-young-and-we-had-no-need-for-prophecies-just-living-was/) [Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/) > [PROPHECY, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ambrose-bierce/prophecy-n-the-art-and-practice-of-selling-one-s-credibility-for/) [Ambrose Bierce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ambrose-bierce/) > [It is not till it is discovered that high individual incomes will not purchase the mass of mankind immunity from cholera, typhus, and ignorance,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-h-tawney/it-is-not-till-it-is-discovered-that-high-individual-incomes-will-not/) [R. H. Tawney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-h-tawney/) > [“Oh, one more thing,' Thor calls out. 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