Alan Watts Quotes

The worse I do the more popular I get.

We all eventually become whatever we pretend to hate.

If you can be that link to other people that came before you and the ones that come after, then you have to honor that link. If you are doing what somebody else tells you to do and you have success, it's horrible. And if you are doing what other people tell you to do and you fail, it's equally horrible.

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.

It's both rebellion and conformity that attack you with success.

I know that many people kill off their real personality just to fit into this society, but why do we have to compromise? I never understood that. I decided to try to be myself and to live by my own values rather than those of others.

I have never felt the constraints of social acceptability.

You know, you don't need a leader to sort of administer something that's going very well. In fact, in one sense, an overly ambitious person in that circumstance can probably screw it up.

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

I try not to think too much about what the audience is thinking and what they think I should do. I'd be self-conscious if I did. Anyone becomes mannered if you think too much about what other people think.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

It really is impossible not to like him. His success was his failure.

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.

You either go along with the system - conform to what is expected to be a hit - or you have very tough going.

Since I became part of the zeitgeist, I've been called a sellout many times.

Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally then to succeed unconventionally.

I want to be able to wake up and feel like, 'Eh, I feel like wearing this!' Or talking to that person. It's so much more work to have to stay in that box to fit in, 'Mean Girls' style.

Being an artist and a human in this world always means confronting people who make you feel like you have to act according to their rules.

Just do what you want more often. Don't be so worried about what other people expect.

I don't want to be seen in a way where all I can do is what people expect of me.

I've done a few face palms after things I've said because it's stupid. But if I'm not like that, I won't feel human anymore. I'll just feel like some robot saying what I'm supposed to say. I think that's when people lose it.

The ambition and focus that propel you to success can also be your downfall.

I think whenever I've thought something might go well, it hasn't, and when I've thought, 'Oh yeah, just chuck it out there,' that's when it kicks off, so now, I don't claim to understand anything.

If you live your life by what others say, it stops being your life.