Alan Watts Quotes

Time is an illusion. Time only exists when we think about the past and the future. Time doesn't exist in the present here and now.

On the surface it seems that the present moment is only one of many, many moments. Each day of your life appears to consist of thousands of moments where different things happen. Yet if you look more deeply, is there not only one moment, ever? Is life ever not this moment? This one moment, now, is the only thing you can never escape from. The one constant factor in your life. No matter what happens. No matter how much your life changes. One thing is certain. Its always now. Since there is no escape from the now, why not welcome it, become friendly with it.

There is neither past nor future. There is only the present. Yesterday was the present to you when you experienced it, and tomorrow will be also the present when you experience it. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond experience nothing exists.

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

The present moment, if you think about it, is the only time there is. No matter what time it is, it is always now.

We have somehow conned ourselves into the notion that this moment is ordinary. This now moment, in which I'm talking and you're listening, is eternity.

There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present.

Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.

If the present is really all we have, then the present lasts forever.

I love the fact that tomorrow never comes. You can never wake up and say, 'It's tomorrow.' It's always today.

The future never comes. Life is always now.

The present moment dies every moment to become the past , is reborn every moment into the future. All experience is now. Now never ends.

The moment is all there is now. All there is is now. That's what God is, too. God is only now.

All experience is now. Now never ends.

Most of us take for granted that time flies, meaning that it passes too quickly. But in the mindful state, time doesn't really pass at all. There is only a single instant of time that keeps renewing itself over and over with infinite variety.

this present moment never comes to be and it never ceases to be, it is simply our minds that construct the continuity of thoughts we call time. In the present moment is nirvana.

In the end, today is forever, yesterday is still today, and tomorrow is already today.

There exists only the present instant ... There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now.

You have it now and that is all your whole life is; now. There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow.

Time is an absurdity. An abstraction. The only thing that matters is this moment.

There is no before. There is only now, and what comes next.

There is not past, no future; everything flows in an eternal present.

The truth about forever is that it is happening right now.

Life always is now, but the form the now takes changes continuously. Most people equate the form the now takes with the now itself, and so they believe there are many different moments.

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.