“The difference between having a job and having a vocation is that a job is some unpleasant work you do in order to make money, with the sole purpose of making money. There are plenty of jobs because there is still a certain amount of dirty work that nobody wants to do, and that therefore they will pay someone to do it. There is essentially less and less of that kind of work because of mechanisation. If you do a job with the sole purpose of making money, you are absurd, because if money becomes the goal–and it does if you work that way–you begin increasingly to confuse it with happiness or with pleasure. Yes, one can take a handful of crisp one dollar bills and practically water your mouth over it, but this is a kind of person who is confused like a Pavlov dog, who salivates on the wrong bell.”
Alan W. Watts“In a relativistic universe you don't cling to anything, you learn to swim. And you know what swimming is - it's kind of a relaxed attitude with the water. In which you don't keep yourself afloat by holding the water, but by a certain giving to it.”
Alan W. Watts, The Essential Alan Watts“Hospitals should be arranged in such a way as to make being sick an interesting experience. One learns a great deal sometimes from being sick. ”
Alan W. Watts, The Essential Alan Watts“You will never get to the irreducible definition of anything because you will never be able to explain why you want to explain, and so on. The system will gobble itself up.”
Alan W. Watts, The Essential Alan Watts“I have always thought that all philosophical debates are ultimately between the partisans of structure and the partisans of "goo.”
Alan W. Watts, The Essential Alan Watts“In reality there are no separate events. Life moves along like water, it's all connected to the source of the river is connected to the mouth and the ocean.”
Alan W. Watts, The Essential Alan Watts“When you find out that there was never anything in the dark side to be afraid of … Nothing is left but to love.”
Alan W. Watts“What’s it gonna be like, dying? To go to sleep and never, never, never wake up.Well, a lot of things it’s not gonna be like. It’s not going to be like being buried alive. It’s not going to be like being in the darkness forever.I tell you what — it’s going to be as if you never had existed at all. Not only you, but everything else as well. That just there was never anything, there’s no one to regret it — and there’s no problem. Well, think about that for a while — it’s kind of a weird feeling when you really think about it, when you really imagine.[The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are ]”
Alan W. Watts“Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present.”
Alan W. Watts“The brush must draw by itself. This cannot happen if one does not practice constantly. But neither can it happen if one makes an effort.”
Alan W. Watts“Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction.”
Alan W. Watts