Alan Watts: Poverty Imagination

Posted by admin on Thursday, December 24, 2020

Alan Watts Money Quote saying we have poverty because there is a poverty of imagination and nobody knows how to enjoy real wealth. Alan Watts said:
 

 

“The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it’s only money… they don’t know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination” — Alan Watts

 

 

In this quote, Alan Watts seems to be criticizing a narrow focus on accumulating wealth for its own sake without consideration for how to find fulfillment through it. By stating that poverty exists due to “no imagination”, and that many accumulate only “money” but “don’t know how to enjoy it”, Watts implies financial success alone does not guarantee happiness if one does not know how to derive meaning and pleasure from life, relationships, experiences and creative expression.

The quote conveys Watts’ perspective that true prosperity involves cultivating imagination, curiosity and passion so that abundance enables exploration and contribution rather than becoming an end in itself. Overall, he appears to be arguing poverty can be as much a poverty of spirit as of resources if people do not envision and pursue living life to its fullest extent.

Birthday: January 6, 1915 –Death: November 16, 1973

Categories: poverty Tagged:alan wattspovertywealth