Alan Watts

The menu is not the meal.

This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

Well, as a kid I did not get Shakespeare. I just never understood it.

There’s a part of me I can’t get back. A little girl grew up too fast. All it took was once, I’ll never be the same.

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

That dog don’t hunt.

A mistake is to commit a misunderstanding.

Life is full of surprises, some good, some not so good.

When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.

Right now, make a list of what you admire about yourself- don’t stop until you’ve filled a page. Sit and relish each quality and accomplishment. When you remember how much you have to be proud of, you don’t need to envy others. Instead of wallowing in your jealousy, use your friends’ accomplishments as inspiration to pursue the life you want.

The more you know, the more you realise how much you don’t know — the less you know, the more you think you know.

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