Alan Watts

Alan Watts

Philosopher, Writer

Alan Watts was a British philosopher known for interpreting Eastern philosophy for Western audiences, particularly through his work 'The Way of Zen.'

Inspiring People Thinking Men World Self
Born
January 6, 1915
Died
November 16, 1973
Quotes
499
Rank
#254

Quote collection

Alan Watts quotes (page 2 of 25)

499 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"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 a future which you will never be able to enjoy. When your plans mature, you will still be living for some other future beyond. You will never, never be able to sit back with full contentment and say, "Now, I've arrived!" Your entire education has deprived you of this capacity because it was preparing you for the future, instead of showing you how to be alive now."

Contentment Alive Able
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."

Motivational Change Moving On
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"Jesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they’ll say you’re crazy and you’re blasphemous, and they’ll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‘My goodness, I’ve just discovered that I’m God,’ they’ll laugh and say, ‘Oh, congratulations, at last you found out."

Jesus Crazy Congratulations
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"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."

Inspirational Fear Heart
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"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."

Inspirational Trust Faith
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"If we are unduly absorbed in improving our lives we may forget altogether to live them."

May Forget Improving
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"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."

Journey Heaven Musical
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"Nothing is more creative than death, since it has the whole secret of life. It means that the past must be abandoned, that the unknown cannot be avoided, that 'I' cannot continue, and that nothing can be ultimately fixed. When a man knows this, he lives for the first time in his life. By holding his breath, he loses it. By letting go he finds it."

Letting Go Mean Men
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command."

Love Good Morning Sexy
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"Don't hurry anything. Don't worry about the future. Don't worry about what progress you're making. Just be entirely content to be aware of what is."

Future Worry Progress
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"Zen... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes."

Spiritual Humor Godly
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know."

Reality Men Ink
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"Everything in the world is gloriously meaningless."

World Meaningless
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone."

Secret Wipe Take A Deep Breath
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"It is interesting that Hindus, when they speak of the creation of the universe do not call it the work of God, they call it the play of God, the Vishnu lila, lila meaning play. And they look upon the whole manifestation of all the universes as a play, as a sport, as a kind of dance — lila perhaps being somewhat related to our word lilt"

Dance God Sports
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"All that you see out in front of you is how you feel inside your head."

How You Feel Feels Fronts
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe."

Spiritual Wisdom Ocean
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"If you love a person, you say to that person, "Look, I love you, whatever that may be. I've seen quite a bit of it and I know there's lots that I haven't seen, but still it's you and I want you to be what you want to be. And I won't be happy if I've got you in a cage. You'd be a bird without song.""

Love Song Bird
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"How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god."

Inspiring Faith Eye
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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
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"Real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter."

Laughter Real Anxiety
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