25 Thought Provoking Alan Watts Quotes

If you are looking for a wonderful collection of Alan Watts quotes, I really think that you are going to enjoy this post.

Alan Watts was a prolific author, speaker and philosopher. He was one of the first people to interpret Eastern wisdom and make it accessible for a Western audience.

Alan Watts did significant research in Zen Buddhism and the fundamental beliefs and practices of religions and philosophies of India and East Asia.

Alan Watts wrote over 25 books and is best known for his bestselling classic, The Way to Zen. He has inspired millions of people with his knowledge, humour and thought-provoking views of the life.

Through his books and popular recordings Alan Watts encourages us to live in the present, appreciate the beauty of the world around us and to see ourselves as connected to all things.

I highly recommend searching for Alan Watts on YouTube. Many of his videos have been watched millions of times.

I hope that you will enjoy this thought provoking collection of Quotes From Alan Watts that I have have selected for you.

Alan Watts Quotes

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

2. “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.” ― Alan Watts

3. “To live, and to love, you have to take risks. There will be disappointments and failures and disasters as a result of taking these risks. But in the long run it will work out.” ― Alan Watts

4. “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

5. “People sometimes fail to live because they are always preparing to live.” ― Alan Watts

6. “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

7. “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” ― Alan Watts

8. “A scholar tries to learn something everyday; a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.” ― Alan Watts

9. “No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” ― Alan Watts

10. “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

11. “Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.” ― Alan Watts

12. “Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present.” ― Alan Watts

13. “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.” ― Alan Watts

14. “The only Zen you’ll find on mountain tops is the Zen you bring up there with you.” ― Alan Watts

Quotes From Alan Watts

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

16. “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.” ― Alan Watts

17. “We see what we believe rather than what we see.” ― Alan Watts

18. “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

19. “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.” ― Alan Watts

20. “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” ― Alan Watts

21. “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

22. “You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.” ― Alan Watts

23. “Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.” ― Alan Watts

24. “Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction.” ― Alan Watts

25. “Waking up to who you are, requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.” ― Alan Watts

This wonderful collection of Alan Watts Quotes offer his unique perspective on the nature of life and the human experience.

His teachings on Buddhism, Taoism, and the nature of consciousness have inspired countless individuals to find a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them.

If you are seeking more information on the meaning of life, or if you are simply looking for a new way to approach your daily experiences, Alan Watts’ quotes are sure to provide an enlightening perspective.

His thought-provoking quotes challenge conventional ways of thinking and inspire us to live more fully in the present moment.