13 Quotes from British philosopher Alan Watts

1. “Every individual is a unique manifestation of the Whole, as every branch is a particular outreaching of the tree.” - Alan Watts

2. “How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.” -Alan Watts

3. “Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.” - Alan Watts

4. “Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.” - Alan Watts

5. “No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” - Alan Watts

6. “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” - Alan Watts

7. “The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.” - Alan Watts

8. “Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations” - Alan Watts

9. “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.” - Alan Watts

10. “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.” - Alan Watts

11. “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.” - Alan Watts

12. “We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.” - Alan Watts

13. “You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean” - Alan Watts