“Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself.”

—  Alan Watts

The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951)
Context: There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied. You cannot talk yourself into it or rouse it by straining at the emotions or by dedicating yourself solemnly to the service of mankind. Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self love bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love.

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Alan Watts 107
British philosopher, writer and speaker 1915–1973

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