Quote

Of course, you can’t force your mind to be silent. That would be like trying to smooth ripples in water with a flatiron. Water becomes clear and calm only when left alone.

Alan Watts

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Like
Alone
Ripples
Clear
Ripple
Water
Smooth
Force
Calm
Left
Silent
Trying
Becomes
Mind
Courses
Would
Course

More quotes by Alan Watts

Image
Our view of reality is like a chart of the sea - the truer it is, the less likely we will become lost.
Alan Watts
Image
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.
Alan Watts
Image
If a flower had a God it would not be a transcendental flower but a field.
Alan Watts
Image
Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal, for the present moment is infinitely small before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever.
Alan Watts
Image
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.
Alan Watts
Image
Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination.
Alan Watts
Image
In Hindu philosophy the whole creation is regarded as the Vishnu Lila, the play of Vishnu. Lila means dance or play. Also in Hindu philosophy, they call the world illusion and in Latin the root of the word illusion is ludere, to play.
Alan Watts
Image
Chaos is always losing, but never defeated
Alan Watts
Image
What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it's a drag? But you see, that's what people do.
Alan Watts
Image
This-the immediate, everyday, and present experience-is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe.
Alan Watts
Image
There was a young man who said though, it seems that I know that I know, but what I would like to see is the I that knows me when I know that I know that I know.
Alan Watts
Image
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: the United States as a territory, as a people, and as a biological manifestation. That is an example of our perennial confusion of symbols with realities.
Alan Watts
Image
The difficulty for most of us in the modern world is that the old-fashioned idea of God has become incredible or implausible.
Alan Watts
Image
But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.
Alan Watts
Image
Philosophy is man’s expression of curiosity about everything and his attempt to make sense of the world primarily through his intellect.
Alan Watts
Image
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.
Alan Watts
Image
I have suggested that behind almost all myth lies the mono-plot of the game of hide-and-seek.
Alan Watts
Image
The world is a marvelous system of wiggles.
Alan Watts
Image
Just as the ocean is waving so each one of us is a waving of the whole cosmos, the entire works, all there is.
Alan Watts
Image
The sound of the rain needs no translation.
Alan Watts