Zhuangzi Quotes

Suppose I try saying something. What way do I have of knowing that if I say I know something I don't...

The tailor bird builds her nest in deep woods, she uses no more than one branch.The mole drinks off ...

When men do not forget what can be forgotten but forget what cannot be forgotten - that may be calle...

A child, obeying his father and mother, goes wherever he is told, east or west, south or north. And ...

Zhuangzi's wife died. When Huizu went to convey his condolences, he found Zhuangzi sitting with his ...

If you'd called me an ox, I'd have said I was an ox; if you'd called me a horse, I'd have said I was...

You can't discuss the ocean with a well frog - he's limited by the space he lives in. You can't disc...

It comes out from no source, it goes back in through no aperture. It has reality yet no place where ...

He who has mastered the true nature of life does not labor over what life cannot do. He who has mast...

The True Man of ancient times knew nothing of loving life, knew nothing of hating death. He emerged ...

The petty thief is imprisoned but the big thief becomes a feudal lord.

He who knows he is a fool is not the biggest fool; he who knows he is confused is not in the worst c...

With all the confusion in the world these days, no matter how often I point the way, what good does ...

Only he who has no use for the empire is fit to be entrusted with it.

Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things th...

I've heard my teacher say, where there are machines, there are bound to be machine worries; where th...

Everything has its "that," everything has its "this." From the point of view of "that" you cannot se...

Life, death, preservation, loss, failure, success, poverty, riches, worthiness, unworthiness, slande...

A man like this will not go where he has no will to go, will not do what he has no mind to do. Thoug...

When I speak of good hearing, I do not mean listening to others; I mean simply listening to yourself...

Do not use life to give life to death. Do not use death to bring death to life.

Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right, it would differ so clearly from not ri...

Things joined by profit, when pressed by misfortune and danger, will cast each other aside.

Don't you know about the praying mantis that waved its arms angrily in front of an approaching carri...

The man who has forgotten self may be said to have entered Heaven.

Can you be a little baby? The baby howls all day, yet its throat never gets hoarse - harmony at its ...

When a man does not dwell in self, then things will of themselves reveal their forms to him. His mov...

A beam or pillar can be used to batter down a city wall, but it is no good for stopping up a little ...

You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves. Smash your form and body, sp...

The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but...

Men of the world who value the Way all turn to books. But books are nothing more than words. Words h...

Understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest.

Men all pay homage to what understanding understands, but no one understands enough to rely upon wha...

In the midst of darkness, he alone sees the dawn; in the midst of the soundless, he alone hears harm...

When you're betting for tiles in an archery contest, you shoot with skill. When you're betting for f...

So it is said, for him who understands Heavenly joy, life is the working of Heaven; death is the tra...

You forget your feet when the shoes are comfortable. You forget your waist when the belt is comforta...

In the world everyone knows enough to pursue what he does not know, but no one knows enough to pursu...

Words have value; what is of value in words is meaning. Meaning has something it is pursuing, but th...

The sage is still not because he takes stillness to be good and therefore is still. The ten thousand...

The Spirit Tower has its guardian, but unless it understands who its guardian is, it cannot be guard...

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purp...

Forget about life, forget about worrying about right and wrong. Plunge into the unknown and the endl...

Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you ar...

The time of the autumn floods came and the hundred streams poured into the Yellow River. … Then the ...

Words are not just wind. Words have something to say. But if what they have to say is not fixed, the...

Today, I went to sleep under a plum tree. There, I dreamed I was a butterfly, flying so pleasently. ...

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no per...

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech can...

Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.

I cannot tell if what the world considers ‘happiness’ is happiness or not. All I know is that when I...

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly d...

If a man crosses a riverand an empty boat collides with his own skiff,Even though he be bad tempered...

Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth.

We are born from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awakening

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

The baby looks at things all day without winking; that is because his eyes are not focused on any pa...

A path is made by walking on it.

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

People who excuse their faults and claim they didn't deserved to be punished - there are lots of the...

Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are ...

Master Dongguo asked Zhuangzi, "This thing called the Way - where does it exist?"Zhuangzi said, "The...

Cease striving. Then there will be transformation.

Where is that man who has forgotten words that I may have a word with him?

I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river.

We can't expect a blind man to appreciate beautiful patterns or a deaf man to listen to bells and dr...

The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be empe...

The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers - because it lives with those wh...

Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!

Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting ch...

Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling ...

If a man, having lashed two hulls together, is crossing a river, and an empty boat happens along and...

Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; for much knowledge is a curse.

You should find the same joy in one condition as in the other and thereby be free of care, that is a...

I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who ...