Alan Watts Quotes

Streams may spring from one source, and yet some be clear and some be foul.

A man to whom you do a favor will not understand if you say nothing, make no noise, just walk away. You may cause more trouble by refusing a bribe than by accepting it.

Impatience is not the least of your faults, Malik, it is a kind of greed and someday it may see you undone.

But that from us aught should ascend to Heav'n So prevalent as to concern the mind Of God, high-bless'd, or to incline His will, Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer.

When once the woman has tempted us, and we have tasted the forbidden fruit, there is no such thing as checking our appetites, whatever the consequences may be.

Any problems that may occur have ultimately been caused by you, because you are responsible for where you are and what you are doing there.

I may have had good reasons. I may have had the best of intentions. But intentions aren’t enough, no matter how good they are. Intentions can lead you to a place where you’re able to make a choice. It’s the choice that counts.

Never teach your child to be cunning or you may be certain you will be one of the very first victims of his shrewdness.

The evil you do to others you may expect in return.

Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities; it floats between virtue and vice; there is scarce any exigence where it may not, and perhaps ought not to be supplied by prudence.

TRUTH may hurt temporarily, but LIES leave marks permanently.

Nearly all our ills are the result of neglect in some way or other. And this truth may be said to apply to the ills of nations as well. Negligence is at the bottom of all decay. And decay always starts by showing little signs-or warnings. Then is the time to show interest and to be alert. There is nothing quite so easy as to neglect, and nothing quite so difficult as to repair that negligence. Negligence always carries a high price. It costs nothing to avoid it!

Some day...after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you.

Confessions may be good for the soul but they are bad for the reputation.

It doesn't matter what product or service you're offering; there is unlimited ability to improve the quality of anything.

When asked if I consider myself Buddhist, the answer is, Not really. But it's more my religion than any other because I was brought up with it in an intellectual and spiritual environment. I don't practice or preach it, however. But Buddhism has had a major effect on who I am and how I think about the world. What I have learned is that I like all religions, but only parts of them.

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.

It rarely happens otherwise than that a thorough-faced coquette dies in celibacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mislead others, by encouraging looks, words, or actions, given for no other purpose than to draw men on to make overtures that they may be rejected.

No matter how horrid a person may appear on the surface, if you dig deeper, you will find some nice, unexpected little quality.

It will be your duty, and it will be your pleasure too to estimate her (as you chose her) by the qualities that she has, and not by the qualities she may not have.

I request that they may be considered in confidence, until the members of Congress are fully possessed of their contents, and shall have had opportunity to deliberate on the consequences of their publication; after which time, I submit them to your wisdom.

The Past is such a curious Creature To look her in the Face A Transport may receipt us Or a Disgrace-.

You have the quality of your work and the integrity with which you do it.

God grant ... that he may learn to understand in time, that whoso is minded to do as he himself wills will soon enough see the day when he will find he has done that which he had never willed.

A false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.