Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Many adults remain emotionally immature by constantly seeking external guidance instead of trusting their own judgment.
In plain terms
People often avoid making their own decisions and look for others to tell them what to do.
What can you take from it?
True maturity involves trusting your own judgment instead of seeking external authority.

Where it applies

  • critiquing dependency
  • discussing personal growth
  • observing adult behavior

Putting it to work

  • develop decision-making skills
  • reduce reliance on guidance
  • build self-trust

Questions to consider

  • Do you trust your own judgment?
  • Why do you seek external authority?

Another view

It overlooks that seeking guidance can be a valid part of learning rather than just immaturity.

More from Alan Watts

  1. Light shines in darkness because what else could it shine in?

    Permalink to quote #30
  2. Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight, but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of meditation in whic…

    Permalink to quote #32
  3. It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that when Western civilization discovers Relativity it applies it to the manufacture of atom-bombs, whereas this Orien…

    Permalink to quote #29

Related quotes

  1. In the progress of personality, first comes a declaration of independence, then a recognition of interdependence.

    Henry van DykeHenry van Dyke quote #41
  2. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another.

    Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant quote #53
  3. Don't believe them, don't fear them, don't ask anything of them.

    Alexander SolzhenitsynAlexander Solzhenitsyn quote #74