Alan Watts Quotes

Quotes about:

• Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be

  Alan Watts

  Letting Go, Ego, Purpose

  352 Copy quote

• The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

  Alan Watts

  Life, Inspiring, Simple

  Alan Watts (2011). “Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life: Collected Talks: 1960-1969”, p.37, New World Library

  435 Copy quote

• By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us.

  Alan Watts

  Mind Blowing, Curiosity, Pushing

  367 Copy quote

• Life is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be had.

  Alan Watts

  Life, Cheer Up, Reality

  393 Copy quote
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  No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.

  Alan Watts

  Differences, Worry, Anxiety

  Alan Watts (2017). “Out of Your Mind: Tricksters, Interdependence, and the Cosmic Game of Hide and Seek”, p.93, Sounds True

  221 Copy quote
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  This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

  Alan Watts

  Life, Inspiring, Monday

  Alan Watts (1977). “The essence of Alan Watts”, Celestial Arts Publishing Company

  347 Copy quote

• Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.

  Alan Watts

  Degrees, Measuring, Productivity

  150 Copy quote

• We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between a causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality.

  Alan Watts

  Memories, Past, Reality

  170 Copy quote

• You are the universe experiencing itself.

  Alan Watts

  Eye Opening, Universe

  184 Copy quote

• The future is a concept, it doesn't exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now. That's one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.

  Alan Watts

  Thinking, Talking, Tomorrow

  Alan Watts (1977). “The essence of Alan Watts”, Celestial Arts Publishing Company

  312 Copy quote

• People sometimes fail to live because they are always preparing to live.

  Alan Watts

  People, Finding Happiness, Sometimes

  76 Copy quote

• All that you see out in front of you is how you feel inside your head.

  Alan Watts

  How You Feel, Feels, Fronts

  88 Copy quote

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

  Alan Watts

  Motivational, Change, Moving On

  Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

  113 Copy quote

• By going out of your mind, you come to your senses

  Alan Watts

  Mind, Going Out, Senses

  Alan Watts (1977). “The essence of Alan Watts”, Celestial Arts Publishing Company

  21 Copy quote

• Nothing satisfies an individual incapable of enjoyment.

  Alan Watts

  Motivational, Individual, Enjoyment

  Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.78, Souvenir Press

  20 Copy quote

• We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.

  Alan Watts

  Journey, Heaven, Musical

  88 Copy quote

• Many people never grow up. They stay all their lives with a passionate need for external authority and guidance, pretending not to trust their own judgment.

  Alan Watts

  Growing Up, People, Needs

  124 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspirational, Trust, Faith

  "The Essence of Alan Watts". Book by Alan Watts, 1977.

  97 Copy quote

• Every explicit duality is an implicit unity.

  Alan Watts

  Unity, Chaos, Duality

  Alan Watts (2017). “Psychotherapy East & West”, p.126, New World Library

  24 Copy quote

• 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 past always flows back from the present. That now is the creative point of life. So you see it's like the idea of forgiving somebody, you change the meaning of the past by doing that...Also, watch the flow of music. The melody as its expressed is changed by notes that come later. Just as the meaning of a sentence...you wait till later to find out what the sentence means...The present is always changing the past.

  Alan Watts

  Mean, Past, Thinking

  287 Copy quote

• Enlightenment or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs but the recognition of what already is.

  Alan Watts

  Enlightenment, Awakening, Recognition

  Alan Watts (1973). “This is It, and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience”, Vintage

  45 Copy quote

• The destination of life is this eternal moment.

  Alan Watts

  Life, Moments, Destination

  Alan Watts (2011). “In My Own Way: An Autobiography”, p.324, New World Library

  48 Copy quote

• Insecurity is the result of trying to be secure.

  Alan Watts

  Insecurity, Trying, Results

  Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

  119 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspiring, Running, Stars

  Alan Watts (2010). “Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation”, p.92, New World Library

  112 Copy quote

• Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction.

  Alan Watts

  Moving, Ready

  Alan Watts (2010). “What Is Zen?”, p.53, New World Library

  29 Copy quote

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