The quotations of

Alan Watts

British American author and lecturer

1915–1973

12 quotes, most often on Love, Philosophy and Change.

The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated ego.
The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), Inside Information
- Philosophy
It must be obvious… that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.
The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951)
- Change
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.
The Essence of Alan Watts (1977)
- Life & Death
- Work
Wonder is not a disease. Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from morons.
Inside Information p. 7
- Art
- Poetry
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.
Alan Watts Teaches Meditation (1992)
- Thinking
There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied.
The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951)
- Love
Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals.
The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), Inside Information
- Nature
If you get the message, hang up the phone.
The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness (1962), p. 26 (This statement was redacted from later editions.)
- Advice
Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself.
The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951)
- Love
What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself.
The Nature of Consciousness
- Philosophy
The greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing.
The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951), p. 32
- Change
- Happiness
I am amazed that Congressmen can pass a bill imposing severe penalties on anyone who burns the American flag, whereas they are responsible for burning that for which the flag stands.
Audio lecture “Individual and Society”
- America
- Clever Jabs

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