Best Alan Watts Quotes

Alan Watts, a renowned philosopher, writer, and speaker, captivated audiences with his profound teachings on Eastern philosophy, spirituality, and the nature of reality.

His unique blend of Eastern wisdom and Western insight continues to resonate with people around the world. In this collection of 49 best quotes by Alan Watts, we will jump into his illuminating perspectives on life, consciousness, and self-discovery.

Through his powerful words, we are encouraged to let go of rigid concepts and embrace the ever-changing dance of life.

Here are the 49 best quotes by Alan Watts:

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
“We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.”
“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”
“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.”
“No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
“We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.”
“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.”
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”
“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
“Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.”
“We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.”
“But I’ll 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.”
“The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”
“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.”
“The only thing that ultimately matters is to eat an ice-cream cone, play a slide trombone, plant a small tree, good God, now you’re free.”
“You’re under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”
“We live in a culture where it has been rubbed into us in every conceivable way that to die is a terrible thing.”
“In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.”
“The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.”
“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.”
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”
“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.”
“If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you’ll spend your life completely wasting your time.”
“No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
“The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.”
“The more we struggle for life (as pleasure), the more we are actually killing what we love.”
“The ego is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself.”
“The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.”
“If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones.”
“Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.”
“Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.”
“But I’ll 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.”
“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.”
“The way to get rid of illusion is to become aware of it.”
“There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied.”
“You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.”
“The only thing that ultimately matters is to eat an ice-cream cone, play a slide trombone, plant a small tree, good God, now you’re free.”
“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.”
“The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.”
“If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you’ll spend your life completely wasting your time.”
“You’re under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”
“But to me nothing — the negative, the empty — is exceedingly powerful.”
“No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time: he is like a steel bridge without flexibility, and the order of his life is rigid and brittle.”
“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.”
“I’ll tell you what Zen is. It’s very simple. Life is like walking along the ridge of a precipice. There is a precipice on either side, and life consists of not falling over the edge.”
“You’re everything that happens. You’re this room, you’re this sense of presence.”
“You are the universe experiencing itself.”
“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.”
“Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.”

These quotes by Alan Watts offer profound insights into life, consciousness, and self-discovery.

49 Best Alan Watts Quotes

Best Alan Watts Quotes

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