All Alan Watts Quotes
- Nothing fails like success—because the self-imposed task of our society and all its members is a contradiction: to force things to happen which are acceptable… Acceptable
- For every individual is a unique manifestation of the Whole, as every branch is a particular outreaching of the tree. To manifest individuality, every branch… Body
- For unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax. There is no point whatever in making plans for… Able
- We therefore work, not for the work's sake, but for money—and money is supposed to get us what we really want in our hours of… Africa
- When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing… Always Arrived
- For the world is an ever-elusive and ever-disappointing mirage only from the standpoint of someone standing aside from it—as if it were quite other than… Aside
- For if you know what you want, and will be content with it, you can be trusted. But if you do not know, your desires… Content
- What is the next step, the practical application? —I will answer that the absolutely vital thing is to consolidate your understanding, to become capable of… Absolutely
- Yet again, the more you strive for some kind of perfection or mastery—in morals, in art or in spirituality—the more you see that you are… Any
- You have seen that the universe is at root a magical illusion and a fabulous game, and that there is no separate "you" to get… Bank
- What we see as death, empty space, or nothingness is only the trough between the crests of this endlessly waving ocean. It is all part… All
- Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself. Humanity
- If, then, my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually… Actually Living
- Just as money is not real, consumable wealth, books are not life. To idolize scriptures is like eating paper currency. Book
- If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you'll spend your life completely wasting your time. You'll be doing things you… Completely
- There is only this now. It does not come from anywhere; it is not going anywhere. It is not permanent, but it is not impermanent.… Always Still
- Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and on, and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless… Content
- Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the… Act
- We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. From
- Society is our extended mind and body. Body
- We must abandon completely the notion of blaming the past for any kind of situation we're in and reverse our thinking and see that the… Abandon
- Real travel requires a maximum of unscheduled wandering, for there is no other way of discovering surprises and marvels, which, as I see it, is… Discovering
- If the human race develops an electronic nervous system, outside the bodies of individual people, thus giving us all one mind and one global body,… All
- Inability to accept the mystic experience is more than an intellectual handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a… Accept
- No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the… Absorbed