“You see, many of the troubles going on in the world right now are being supervised by people with very good intentions whose attempts are to keep things in order, to clean things up, to forbid this, and to prevent that. The more we try to put everything to rights, the more we make fantastic messes.”

— Alan Watts

Play to Live : Lectures of Alan Watts (1982)
Context: Archimedes said, "Give me a fulcrum and I will move the Earth"; but there isn't one. It is like betting on the future of the human race — I might wish to lay a bet that the human race would destroy itself by the year 2000, but there is nowhere to place the bet. On the contrary, I am involved in the world and must try to see that it does not blow itself to pieces. I once had a terrible argument with Margaret Mead. She was holding forth one evening on the absolute horror of the atomic bomb, and how everybody should spring into action and abolish it, but she was getting so furious about it that I said to her: "You scare me because I think you are the kind of person who will push the button in order to get rid of the other people who were going to push it first." So she told me that I had no love for my future generations, that I had no responsibility for my children, and that I was a phony swami who believed in retreating from facts. But I maintained my position. As Robert Oppenheimer said a short while before he died, "It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so." You see, many of the troubles going on in the world right now are being supervised by people with very good intentions whose attempts are to keep things in order, to clean things up, to forbid this, and to prevent that. The more we try to put everything to rights, the more we make fantastic messes. Maybe that is the way it has got to be. Maybe I should not say anything at all about the folly of trying to put things to right but simply, on the principle of Blake, let the fool persist in his folly so that he will become wise.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You see, many of the troubles going on in the world right now are being supervised by people with very good intentions …" by Alan Watts?

Alan Watts 107

British philosopher, writer and speaker 1915–1973

Related quotes

“People are chameleons, and you adapt to your surroundings. If you're not willing to put the right people around you or stick to the right group of friends or keep the right influences around you, it makes everything more difficult.”

David Henrie (1989) American actor

David Henrie Interview: "There’s Someone out There That’s Got My Eye, but We’re Just Seeing Where It Goes" (26 January 2015) Smashing Interviews Magazine https://smashinginterviews.com/interviews/actors/david-henrie-interview-theres-someone-out-there-thats-got-my-eye-but-were-just-seeing-where-it-goes

“Too many people in Connecticut are struggling right now, and the last thing we need is meddling politicians making things worse. Only by cutting deficit spending, reducing burdensome regulations, and letting people keep more of their hard-earned dollars will we get our economy back on track.”

Peter D. Schiff (1963) American entrepreneur, economist and author

2010 Senate Campaign

“The really magical things are the ones that happen right in front of you. A lot of the time you keep looking for beauty, but it is already there. And if you look with a bit more intention, you see it.”

Vik Muniz (1961) Brazilian artist

“If we believe a thing to be bad, and if we have a right to prevent it, it is our duty to try to prevent it and damn the consequences.”

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner (1854–1925) British statesman and colonial administrator

Source: Milner, in a speech given in Glasgow on November 26, 1909, on Lloyd George's "People's Budget", presented to Parliament, Lord Alfred Milner, cited in The Nation and The Empire, Constable, 1913, pgs. 400-401

“So many things are happening right now, so I'm in the process of digesting everything and putting things in order. I think it's too early for me to say that this is my goal or this is my plan. I’m just going to try and do my best to live every day to the fullest.”

HoYeon Jung (1994) South Korean model, actress

Source: "“Squid Game” Star Hoyeon Jung on Her Rapid Rise, BLACKPINK’s Jennie, and What’s Next" in Teen Vogue https://www.teenvogue.com/story/squid-game-star-hoyeon-jung-interview (6 October 2021)

“So whatever decision you make, you're going to be able to find stories or signs to say 'I did the right thing,' because we have to believe we did the right thing in order to survive.”

Lulu Wang (1983) Asian-American filmmaker

As quoted in "In 'The Farewell,' The Bad News Bearers Keep A Secret" in WBUR News (13 July 2019) https://www.wbur.org/npr/741217856/in-the-farewell-the-bad-news-bearers-keep-a-secret

“I may say things with the right intention, but more often than not, people will misconstrue it.”

Shahrukh Khan (1965) Indian actor, producer and television personality

From interview with Anshul Chaturvedi

“The trouble with you and me, is that we don't live in the real world. We dream of fantastic things that may never happen.”

Agatha Christie book Endless Night

Source: Endless Night

“There are many, many dark things flowing around in this world right now, and most films reflect the world in which we live.”

David Lynch book Catching the Big Fish

Darkness, p. 91
Catching the Big Fish (2006)
Context: People have asked me why — if meditation is so great and gives you so much bliss — are my films so dark, and there's so much violence?
There are many, many dark things flowing around in this world right now, and most films reflect the world in which we live. They're stories. Stories are always going to have conflict. They're going to have highs and lows, and good and bad.
I fall in love with certain ideas. And I am where I am. Now, if I told you I was enlightened, and this is enlightened filmmaking, that would be another story. But I'm just a guy from Missoula, Montana, doing my thing, going down the road like everybody else.
We all reflect the world we live in. Even if you make a period film, it will reflect your times. You can see the way period films differ, depending on when they were made. It's a sensibility — how they talk, certain themes — and those things change as the world changes.
And so, even though I'm from Missoula, Montana, which is not the surrealistic capital of the world, you could be anywhere and see a kind of strangeness in how the world is these days, or have a certain way of looking at things.

“The thing that we need in the world today is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and to be opposed to wrong, wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that some things are wrong, whether they're never caught up with. And some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Rediscovering Lost Values (1954)

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Alan Watts 107

Related quotes

Related topics