Quote

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

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Alan Watts
Age: 58 †
Born: 1915
Born: January 6
Died: 1973
Died: November 16
Anglican Priest
Author
Dramaturge
Musician
Philosopher
Theologian
Videographer
Writer
Kent
England
Society
Private
Actually
Terms
Language
Thoughts
Languages
Given
Realize
Invent
Think
Emotion
Seldom
Thinking
Example
Images
Realizing
Emotions
Term
Inspiring

More quotes by Alan Watts

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The agnostic, the skeptic, is neurotic, but this does not imply a false philosophy it implies the discovery of facts to which he does not know how to adapt himself. The intellectual who tries to escape from neurosis by escaping from the facts is merely acting on the principle that “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.
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I would suggest that today, we know about as much concerning the human mind as we knew about the galaxy in 1300.
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Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself.
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We get such a kick out of looking forward to pleasures and rushing ahead to meet them that we can’t slow down enough to enjoy them when they come.
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What keeps us from happiness is our inability to fully inhabit the present
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We tend to regard ourselves as puppets of the Past, driven along by something that is always behind us.
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Real travel requires a maximum of unscheduled wandering, for there is no other way of discovering surprises and marvels, which, as I see it, is the only good reason for not staying at home.
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Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.
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Yet again, the more you strive for some kind of perfection or mastery—in morals, in art or in spirituality—the more you see that you are playing a rarified and lofty form of the old ego-game, and that your attainment of any height is apparent to yourself and to others only by contrast with someone else's depth or failure.
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The world is in an extremely dangerous situation, and serious diseases often require the risk of a dangerous cure like the Pasteur serum for rabies.
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A person who thinks too much only ever thinks about his thoughts
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We are not clear as to the role in life of these chemicals nor are we clear as to the role of the physician. You know, of course, that in ancient times there was no clear distinction between priest and physician.
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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. That's one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.
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How did you know you're alive, unless you'd once been dead?
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And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.
Alan Watts
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Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.
Alan Watts
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And the more you become aware of the unknown self - if you become aware of it - the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is.
Alan Watts
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Do not let the rapidity with which these thoughts can change deceive you into feeling that you think them all at once.
Alan Watts
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How could you say the best form of government is a republic if you think the universe is a monarchy?
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We all need to go out of our minds at least once a day. When we go out of our minds we quickly come to our senses.
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