Alan Watts

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“We do not 'come into' this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.”

“The future is a concept, it doesn't exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now.”

“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”

“But 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.”

“Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not our duty, it is our joy.”

“You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.”

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

“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.”

“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”

“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.”

“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”

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

“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.”

“But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.”

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”

“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.”