# Quote — Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

> The more we struggle for life (as pleasure), the more we are actually killing what we love.

- Author: [Alan W. Watts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-w-watts.md)
- Book: [The Wisdom of Insecurity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-w-watts/the-wisdom-of-insecurity.md)
- Page: 32
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Watts#The_Wisdom_of_Insecurity_(1951)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-w-watts/the-wisdom-of-insecurity/the-more-we-struggle

## More from this book

> It must be obvious... that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-w-watts/the-wisdom-of-insecurity/it-must-be-obvious.md)

> The greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing.

p. 32 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-w-watts/the-wisdom-of-insecurity/the-greater-part.md)

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-w-watts/the-wisdom-of-insecurity/there-is-no-formula.md)