Philosophy Quote by Alan Wilson Watts — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”

“There is nothing at all that can be talked about adequately, and the whole art of poetry is to say what can't be said.”

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”

“Philosophers, for example, often fail to recognize that their remarks about the universe apply also to themselves and their remarks. If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so.”

“What we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriously. A convention is a social convenience, as, for example, money ... but it is absurd to take money too seriously, to confuse it with real wealth ... In somewhat the same way, thoughts, ideas and words are "coins" for real things.”

“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.”

“[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion.”

“It is not enough to show how clever we are by showing how obscure everything is".”

“A truth that's told with bad intent”

“It takes intelligence to recognize intelligence, or the lack of it.”

“The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as “Do not lie.” Next come the proofs, such as why we should not lie. The third field supports and articulates the proofs, by asking, for example, “How does this prove it? What exactly is a proof, what is logical inference, what is contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood?” Thus, the third field is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first. The most important, though, the one that should occupy most of our time, is the first. But we do just the opposite. We are preoccupied with the third field and give that all our attention, passing the first by altogether. The result is that we lie – but have no difficulty proving why we shouldn’t.”