“You do not ask what is the value, or what is the use, of this feeling. Of what use is the universe? What is the practical application of a million galaxies? Yet just because it has no use, it has a use—which may sound like a paradox, but is not. What, for instance, is the use of playing music? If you play to make money, to outdo some other artist, to be a person of culture, or to improve your mind, you are not really playing—for your mind is not on the music. You don't swing. When you come to think of it, playing or listening to music is a pure luxury, an addiction, a waste of valuable time and money for nothing more than making elaborate patterns of sound.”
Source: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), p. 92
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Alan Watts 107
British philosopher, writer and speaker 1915–1973Related quotes
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The Crown of Wild Olive, lecture I: Work, sections 23-24 (1866).