The Wisdom of Insecurity

by Alan W. Watts

If happiness always depends on something expected in the future, we are chasing a will-o’-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp, until the future, and ourselves, vanish into the abyss of death.

You will not see the sky if you have covered the glass with blue paint.

If, then, we are to be fully human and fully alive and aware, it seems that we must be willing to suffer for our pleasures.

If my happiness at this moment consists largely in reviewing happy memories and expectations, I am but dimly aware of this present. I shall still be dimly aware of the present when the good things that I have been expecting come to pass. For I shall have formed a habit of looking behind and ahead, making it difficult for me to attend to the here and now. If, then, my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually living in the real world.

many people of wealth understand much more about making and saving money than about using and enjoying it. They fail to live because they are always preparing to live. Instead of earning a living they are mostly earning an earning, and thus when the time comes to relax they are unable to do so.

For the perishability and changefulness of the world is part and parcel of its liveliness and loveliness.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.

“the mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

It is obvious that the only interesting people are interested people,