Life stacks itself like an overstuffed inbox. Every notification tugs at your attention, every deadline a reminder of “hurry the hell up.” And nothing makes that clearer than the world we live in now—AI predictions, climate reports, economic shifts. It’s all a lot.
Then there’s the microcosm of your own life: work, errands, family, bills. The never-ending loop of keeping up with everything adulthood demands of you.
No wonder the mind can feel like it’s running a marathon with no finish line.
Here’s where Alan Watts’ quotes serve as your lifeline. Didn’t the philosophical writer once say that “the more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless”?
So, here’s your permission slip to take the breather you’ve been dying to take—even if for a second—with his timeless wisdom.
Who was Alan Watts?
Google the name ‘Alan Watts’ and you’ll discover that the British philosopher, writer, and speaker made Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and mindfulness accessible to the modern world. A self-proclaimed philosophical entertainer, he explored the nature of reality with humor and curiosity, showing people how to loosen their grip on life.
A poet, ex-priest, mystic, and sharp-witted critic of society, Alan didn’t just study philosophy—he embodied it. He laughed at life’s absurdities, challenged rigid beliefs, and urged others to do the same.
Across 25+ books and nearly 400 recorded lectures, his words continue to shape minds. Behold the Spirit, one of his earliest works, redefined spirituality for a modern world, blending Eastern wisdom with Western curiosity.
Decades later, his words still pull people in, urging overthinkers and worrywarts to not take life too seriously.
10 best Alan Watts quotes of all time
This is where you’re called to wake up. These famous Alan Watts quotes make you want to stop whatever you’re doing and live, not just exist.
They’re the ones that get shared on social media with captions like “Read this when you’re feeling lost.” Because there’s truly nothing quite like Alan’s words to make you feel found.
See for yourself:
- “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”
- “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
- “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”
- “You don’t look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.”
- “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.”
- “No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
- “The past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.”
- “You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are no stranger here.”
- “We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own.”
- “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
10 Alan Watts quotes on life
Alan wasn’t the kind of philosopher who stayed locked in a study. He was out in the world, talking. Laughing. Living.
He spoke at cliffside retreats where existentialists questioned everything. Swapped ideas with poets over whiskey. Wandered through San Francisco’s counterculture, where free thinkers, artists, and spiritual seekers alike communed and pondered over reality.
And throughout it all, he saw how people clung to control, afraid to let life unfold on its own. It’s no wonder why he eventually decided that life shouldn’t be overthought, only experienced to the fullest.
So if you’re feeling stuck, caught between all the “shoulds” and “what ifs,” then this curated list of Alan Watts’ famous quotes on life is your cue to let go and see what happens.
- “This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.”
- “You are something the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something the whole ocean is doing.”
- “No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.”
- “To remain stable is to stagnate.”
- “Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present.”
- “Life is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be had.”
- “The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.”
- “We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.”
- “You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.”
- “The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.”
10 inspirational Alan Watts quotes
So you’ve decided to live life the Alan Watts way—loosening your grip, opening yourself up to new possibilities.
Brilliant. But even with the best intentions, life piles up. Plans change, expectations press in, and the mind starts running in circles.
Maybe you’re staring at your calendar, wondering how every hour got accounted for. Or you’re stuck in traffic, replaying old decisions, or lying awake at 2 A.M., chasing thoughts that never seem to settle.
Here’s where a dose of Watts’ joie de vivre comes in. His words are a reset when self-doubt creeps in, paving the way for clarity, resilience, and well-being—benefits you’ll reap when you let go of the weight on your shoulders.
Above all, they remind you to trust the process, stay present in your self-awareness, and find freedom in uncertainty.
- The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
- “To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.”
- “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”
- “The meaning of life is just to be alive.”
- “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
- “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”
- “You don’t look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.”
- “No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
- “The past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.”
- “You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are no stranger here.”
10 Alan Watts love quotes
Love shows up in ways you don’t always expect, sidestepping the Hallmark-approved grand gestures you see on TV.
It’s in the way a friend listens without needing to fix anything. The quiet knowing between two people who’ve been through too much together to ever let go. The stranger who holds the door open. Or the teacher who sees something in you before you see it yourself.
Alan explored this quiet nature of love with equally solemn curiosity. He often spoke of presence, connection, and the freedom that comes with loving without attachment in his work.
Through his wise words, you can see love for what it is: not a possession, but something to see, feel, and observe without force—across all relationship dynamics and scenarios in life.
Here’s a deep dive into some of his quotes on this universal experience:
- “Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.”
- “Love is an act of surrender to another person. Total abandonment. I give myself to you.”
- “If you love a person, you say to that person, ‘Look, I love you, whatever that may be. I’ve seen quite a bit of it and I know there’s lots that I haven’t seen, but still it’s you and I want you to be what you want to be.’”
- “Is it only when you’re in love with another person that you see them as they really are? Because when you’re in love with someone, you do indeed see them as a divine being.”
- “Love is not something that is a sort of rare commodity. Everybody has it.”
- “The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion.”
- “People who exude love are apt to give things away. They are in every way like rivers; they stream.”
- “So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.”
- “Love is the organizing and unifying principle which makes the world a universe and the disintegrated mass a community.”
- “Love is the foremost of all self-expressions.”
10 Alan Watts quotes on the universe
How do you receive spiritual guidance like Alan did? It starts with two questions:
- “Who am I?”
- “Why am I here?”
Alan asked himself these long before he had words for them. As a kid in England, he wandered the countryside, watching rivers carve their own paths, trees stretch toward the sun, and clouds shift without hesitation. Everything moved. Everything was connected.
Maybe you, too, have felt that unshakable pull toward something bigger when you look up at the night sky. That moment when everything feels vast, yet strangely familiar. The feeling isn’t just in your head—it’s awe, which expands your perception of time (and boosts well-being, too).
The thing is, Alan spent his life exploring that feeling. He was always diving head first into the idea that what we search for ‘out there’ has been within us all along. Spiritual transcendence, to him, is an inherent state to access, not an external experience to chase.
Here’s how he waxed lyrical about the universe, turning its mystery into familiar “feels” that hit you right at your core:
- “You, yourself, are the eternal energy which appears as this Universe. You didn’t come into this world; you came out of it. Like a wave from the ocean.”
- “We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean ‘waves,’ the universe ‘peoples.’ Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.”
- “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.”
- “You have seen that the universe is at root a magical illusion and a fabulous game, and that there is no separate ‘you’ to get something out of it, as if life were a bank to be robbed.”
- “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.”
- “To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely one with this universe.”
- “The further and further we look out with our telescopes and the further and further we look in with our microscopes, the larger and larger and smaller and smaller the universe becomes in order to escape the investigation because we are the universe looking at itself.”
- “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.”
- “It’s not true that you came into this world. You came out of it, in the same way a flower comes out of a plant or a fruit comes out of a tree.”
- “Until we have known death, we do not know life.”
Expand your consciousness
“You are the universe experiencing itself,” said Alan, after years of spending his life realizing that we were never separate from the universe—that we are it all along.
That pull you feel to all things greater than you? It’s the universe calling you home… to presence, to awareness, to the part of you that was never separate from it, to begin with. And this is the essence of soul-searching.
So pause. Breathe. Sink into the moment. And the further you go inward, the more there is to uncover—which is where Mindvalley’s free soul-searching resources can be super handy.
Want to shift your mindset? There are free affirmation cards on standby to help you with that. Not sure where to start, and what to get your thoughts together first? Turn to the free manifestation journal, where prompts can help you unpack your mind.
Ready to dive a little deeper? Explore free classes by spiritual teachers like Regan Hillyer, Jeffrey Allen, Marie Diamond, and more to help you unlock new levels of clarity in your life.
The moment you dare to tap in, life immediately rises to meet you where you are. So take heed of Mindvalley’s support… and see for yourself.
Welcome in.
