Quote

There is a peculiar contradiction in trying to be a member of a republic while believing that the universe is a monarchy.

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
Members
Universe
Trying
Monarchy
Believe
Member
Contradiction
Peculiar
Republic
Believing

More quotes by Alan Watts

Image
The morning glory which blooms for an hour differs not at heart from a giant pine that lives for a thousand years.
Alan Watts
Image
The sound of the rain needs no translation. In music one doesn't make the end of the composition the point of the composition... Same way in dancing, you don't aim at one particular spot in the room... The whole point of dancing is the dance.
Alan Watts
Image
To feel that life is meaningless unless “I” can be permanent is like having fallen desperately in love with an inch.
Alan Watts
Image
You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.
Alan Watts
Image
If a flower had a God it would not be a transcendental flower but a field.
Alan Watts
Image
Self-improvement is a dangerous form of vanity.
Alan Watts
Image
Conscious attention is a designed function of the brain which scans the environment for any trouble making changes. If you identify yourself with your trouble shooter, then naturally you define yourself as being in a perpetual state of anxiety.
Alan Watts
Image
Other people teach us who we are. Their attitudes to us are the mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but the mirror is distorted. We are, perhaps, rather dimly aware of the immense power of our social enviornment.
Alan Watts
Image
Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.
Alan Watts
Image
I find that the sensation of myself as an ego inside a bag of skin is really a hallucination.
Alan Watts
Image
I would suggest that today, we know about as much concerning the human mind as we knew about the galaxy in 1300.
Alan Watts
Image
People often say to me, 'I understand what you are talking about intellectually, but I don't really feel it, I don't realize it,' and I am apt to reply, 'I wonder whether you do understand it intellectually, because if you did you would also feel it.'
Alan Watts
Image
Do you have any control over being conscious? Do you know how you will?
Alan Watts
Image
A scholar tries to learn something everyday a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.
Alan Watts
Image
To be silent is not to lose your tongue. On the contrary, it is only through silence that one can discover something new to talk about. One who talked incessantly, without stopping to look and listen, would repeat himself ad nauseam.
Alan Watts
Image
What is the next step, the practical application? —I will answer that the absolutely vital thing is to consolidate your understanding, to become capable of enjoyment, of living in the present, and of the discipline which this involves. Without this you have nothing to give.
Alan Watts
Image
You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.
Alan Watts
Image
Where-so-ever beings exist throughout all galaxies, it doesn't make any difference - you are all of them....and when they come into being, that's you coming into being.
Alan Watts
Image
The harder we try to catch hold of the moment, to seize a pleasant sensation..., the more elusive it becomes... It is like trying to clutch water in one's hands - the harder one grips, the faster it slips through one's fingers.
Alan Watts
Image
Nirvana is where you are, provided you don't object to it.
Alan Watts