Quotes By Alan Watts


“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.” Alan Watts

“Philosophy is man’s expression of curiosity about everything and his attempt to make sense of the world primarily through his intellect.” Alan Watts

“This is the real secret of life, to be completely engaged with what you’re doing in the here and now. and instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” Alan Watts

“We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.” Alan Watts

“But I tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.” Alan Watts

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead, you relax and float.” Alan Watts

“What I am really saying is that you don’t need to do anything, because if you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomenon of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns, in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are all just like that, and there is nothing wrong with you at all.” Alan Watts

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan Watts

“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 don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid.” Alan Watts

“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.” Alan Watts

“Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up… Now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.” Alan Watts

“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” Alan Watts

“A scholar tries to learn something every day; a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.” Alan Watts

“Love is not something that is a sort of rare commodity, everybody has it.” Alan Watts

“Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.” Alan Watts

“So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.” Alan Watts

“No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” Alan Watts

“But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.” Alan Watts

” When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.” Alan Watts

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