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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 The Essence of Alan Watts (1977)

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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)

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)

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)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

Sanu Sharma

You can never plan the future by the past.

Edmund Burke A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley Poems (1656)

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.