WIST Quotations

Watts, Alan -- “The Relevance of Oriental Philosophy” (c. 1964)

Dave — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 17:51:03 +0000

You see, a philosopher is a sort of intellectual yokel who gawks at things that sensible people take for granted.

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
“The Relevance of Oriental Philosophy” (c. 1964)
(Source)

Collected in Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life, ch. 6 (2006). Variant: "A philosopher is a sort of intellectual yokel who gawks at things, like existence, that ordinary people take for granted."

Watts, Alan -- “The Relevance of Oriental Philosophy” (c. 1964)

Dave — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 19:34:37 +0000

The problem is that the philosopher of today has lost his wonder, because wonder, in modern philosophy, is something you must not have; it is like enthusiasm in eighteenth-century England — it is very bad form.

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
“The Relevance of Oriental Philosophy” (c. 1964)
(Source)

Collected in Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life, ch. 6 (2006).

Watts, Alan -- “This is It,” This Is It (1960)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
“This is It,” This Is It (1960)
(Source)

Watts, Alan -- Beyond Theology, ch. 2 “Is It Serious?” (1964)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

This is more or less what I would do if I had the power to dream every night of anything I wanted. Some months I would probably fulfill all the more obvious wishes. There might be palaces and banquets, players and dancing girls, fabulous bouts of love, and sunlit gardens beside lakes, with mountains beyond. There would next be long conversations with sages, contemplation of supreme works of art, hearing and playing music, voyages to foreign lands, flying out into space to see the galaxies, and delving into the atom to watch the wiggling wavicles. But the night would come when I might want to add a little spice of adventure — perhaps a dream of dangerous mountain climbing, of rescuing a princess from a dragon, or, better, an unpredictable dream in which I do not know what will happen. Once this has started, I might get still more daring. I would wish to dream whole lifetimes, packing seventy years into a single night. I would dream that I am not dreaming at all, that I will never wake up, that I have completely lost myself somewhere down the tangled corridors of the mind, and, finally, that I am in such excruciating agony that when I wake up, it will be better than all possible dreams.

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
Beyond Theology, ch. 2 “Is It Serious?” (1964)

Watts, Alan -- The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, ch. 3 “How to be a Genuine Fake” (1966)

Dave — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 01:19:08 +0000

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

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, ch. 3 “How to be a Genuine Fake” (1966)
(Source)

See Peres.

Watts, Alan -- The Way of Liberation

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

You know that if you get in the water and have nothing to hold on to, but try to behave as you would on dry land, you will drown. But if, on the other hand, you trust yourself to the water and let go, you will float. And this is exactly the situation of faith.

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
The Way of Liberation

Watts, Alan -- The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety, ch. 3 (1951)

Dave — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 23:54:29 +0000

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

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety, ch. 3 (1951)
(Source)

Watts, Alan -- The Wisdom of Insecurity, ch. 7 “The Transformation of Life” (1951)

Dave — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:30:30 +0000

The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance. Like music, also, it is fulfilled in each moment of the course. You do not play a sonata in order to reach the final chord, and if the meaning of things were simply in ends, composers would write nothing but finales.

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American philosopher, writer
The Wisdom of Insecurity, ch. 7 “The Transformation of Life” (1951)
(Source)