Alan Watts

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

If you really understand Zen, you can use any book, even the dictionary, because the sound of the rain needs no translation.

Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up… now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.

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.

Join the dance.

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

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.

And of all the things I look forward to in life, falling in love with you is at the top of the list.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.

Are people more violently opposed to fur rather than leather because its much easier to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs?

I no longer feel the need of seeking out conscious Americanism. Because we live here and work here, we can be certain that when our music is mature it will also be American in quality.

Does anyone ask their parents how they are conceived?

Being home alone at night makes me a bit nervous. If I’m at home alone, I have to sleep on the sofa – I can’t face going to bed. I’m there with the TV on and all the lights on. I’m not very brave about anything in life. In tennis, yes. In everything else, not very.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it.

Hard knocks have a place and value, but hard thinking goes farther in less time.

Those are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.

If you enjoy it enough you’re bound to learn something.

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

A man always has two reasons for what he does-a good one, and the real one.

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.