To resist change, to try to cling to life, is therefore like holding your breath: if you persist you kill yourself.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 12, 1951
Author · 17 quotes
Alan Watts was a British writer, speaker, and philosopher known for popularizing Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. He interpreted and introduced the teachings of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism, influencing the counterculture movement of the 1960s with his teachings on spirituality and the nature of reality.
1915–1973·lived 58 years
To resist change, to try to cling to life, is therefore like holding your breath: if you persist you kill yourself.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 12, 1951
Belief clings, but faith lets go.
Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present.
The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money... they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 45, 1951
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.The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, p. 56, 1966
The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 23, 1951
But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 45, 1951
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.How to Gain Control of Your Life, 2022
Man suffers because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.
The past and future are real illusions; they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 24, 1951
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.The Way of Zen, p. 155, 1957
No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.
The best medicine I have found is to love a woman.Still the Mind, Alan Watts Organization
A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So he loses touch with reality, and lives in a world of illusion.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 23, 1951
In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.Being in the Way – Ep. 10 – Veil of Thoughts: Money, Relationships & Desire, Be Here Now Network, 2026
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.The Wisdom of Insecurity, p. 45, 1951
That’s all 17 quotes by Alan Watts.