Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British philosopher, writer and speaker known for interpreting and popularising Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. He received a master's degree in theology from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and became an Episcopal priest in 1945. He left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies.[2]

Either you run the day, or the day runs you.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

Never wish life were easier, wish that you were better.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live.

Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

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

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

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.

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.