Skip to content

The greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing.

— Alan Watts The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951)

Another quote →

Topics

More quotes by Alan Watts

I have suggested that behind almost all myth lies the mono-plot of the game of hide-and-seek.

The Two Hands of God : The Myths of Polarity (1963)

What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself.

The Nature of Consciousness; also published as What Is Reality? (1989)

Life and love generate effort, but effort will not generate them.

The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966)

There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied.

The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951)

Just as in the retina there are myriads of little nerve endings, we are the nerve endings of the universe.

Ways of Liberation: Essays and Lectures on the Transformation of Self (1983)

All Alan Watts quotes →

You may also like

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

The key to self-generated happiness (the only reliable kind) is the refusal to take oneself too seriously.

Tom Robbins High Times interview (2002)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.

Spider Robinson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alan Watts (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.