Zhuangzi Quotations

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.

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

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

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

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?

Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature.

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

I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?

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

All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten. The foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and valuable, and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten.

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

My most interesting memory is of my first real dream. I was a caterpillar, wriggling around in the earth, just the way a caterpillar would. Following my caterpillar whims, completely unaware of anyone.

Only fools imagine they are already awake. How clearly they understand everything! How easily they distinguish this deception from that reality!

When you're dreaming, you don't know it's a dream. You might even interpret a dream in your dream - and then wake up and realize it was all a dream. Perhaps a great awakening will reveal this to be a dream as well.

The true man breathes with his heels.

All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.

In an archery contest, when the stakes are earthenware tiles a contestant shoots with skill. When the stakes are belt buckles he becomes hesitant, and if the stakes are pure gold he becomes nervous and confused. There is no difference as to his skil.

A man who knows he is a fool is not a great fool.

It is only when the formed learns from the unformed that there is understanding.

To use what has a boundary to pursue what is limitless is dangerous; with this knowledge, if we still go after knowledge, we will run into trouble. Do not do what is good in order to gain praise. If you do what is bad be sure to avoid the punishment. Follow the Middle Course, for this is the way to keep yourself together, to sustain your life, to care for your parents and to live for many years.

...the ten thousand things belong to one storehouse and life and death share the same body.

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

The man who has some respect for his person keeps his carcass out of sight, hides himself as perfectly as he can.

Sound intelligence promises victory in every battle.

The Way is to man as rivers and lakes are to fish, the natural condition of life.

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

The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present.

A sage steers by the bright light of confusion and doubt.

You are still guided by your expectations.

For all people strive to grasp what they do not know, while none strive to grasp what they already know; and all strive to discredit what they do not excel in, while none strive to discredit what they do excel in. This is why there is chaos.

True depth of understanding is wide and steady, Shallow understanding is lazy and wandering, Words of wisdom are precise and clear

My description of wisdom has nothing to do with benevolence and righteousness, it is to do with being wise in one's own virtue, nothing more. My description of being has nothing to do with benevolence and righteousness, it is that one should be led by one's innate nature, nothing more.

He who knows the activities of Nature lives according to Nature.

Why don’t you try wandering with me to the Palace of Not-Even-Anything

Running around accusing others is not as good as laughing. And enjoying a good laugh is not as good as going along with things.

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

If one is true to one's inner self, and follows its wisdom, who is without a teacher?

The World is Large - Its beauty indescrible.

Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind.

The space under the sky is occupied by all things in their unity.

A battering ram can knock down a city wall, but it cannot stop a hole. Different things have different uses.

Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakeable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou.

Who knows when the end is reached? Death may be the beginning of life. How do I know that love of life is not a delusion after all? How do I know that he who dreads to die is as a child who has lost the way and cannot find his way home? How do I know that the dead repent of having previously clung to life?

If we look on heaven and earth as a single crucible, and on the creator as the founder, would there be any place I could not go? When it is time, I will fall asleep, and when the right time comes, I will wake up again.

There are no greater adversaries than yin and yang, because nothing in Heaven or on Earth escapes them. But it is not yin and yang that do this, it is your heart that makes it so.

Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy

All that is limited by form, semblance, sound, color is called object. Among them all, man alone is more than an object. Though, like objects, he has form and semblance, He is not limited to form. He is more. He can attain to formlessness. When he is beyond form and semblance, beyond "this" and "that," where is the comparison with another object? Where is the conflict? What can stand in his way? He will rest in his eternal place which is no-place. He will be hidden in his own unfathomable secret. His nature sinks to its root in the One. His vitality, his power hide in secret Tao.

Everything has what is innate,everything has what is necessary.

There is no bandit so powerful as Nature. The interaction of the positive and the negative principles, which produces the visible universe. In the whole universe there is no escape from it.

The tao is made because we walk it,things become what they are called.

He who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar.

When I talk about having good hearing, I don't mean just listening, but listening to yourself. When I talk about good eyesight, I don't mean just looking, but looking at yourself.

The fact is that those who do not see themselves but who see others, who fail to grasp of themselves but who grasp others, take possession of what others have but fail to possess themselves. they are attracted to what others enjoy but fail to find enjoyment in themselves.

Am I a human dreaming I am a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I am a human?

There is a beginning. There is no beginning of that beginning ... There is something. There is nothing.

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

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

Beneath multiple specific and individual distinctions, beneath innumerable and incessant transformations, at the bottom of the circular evolution without beginning or end, there hides a law, a unique nature participated in by all beings, in which this common participation produces a ground of common harmony.

Tao is the source of both fullness and emptiness. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness.

The right way to go easy is to forget the right way...

Compare birth with death, compare death with life; compare what is possible with what is not possible and compare what is not possible with what is possible; because there is, there is not, and because there is not, there is.

There is a saying that Heaven is internal, humanity external and Virtue comes from the Heavenly. Know Heaven and humanity's actions, root yourself in Heaven and follow Virture.Then you can bend, stretch, rush forward or hold back, because you will always return to the core and it will be said you have achieved the supreme.

Great knowledge is universal. Small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter.

If the Way is made clear, it is not the Way.

That knowledge which stops at what it does not know, is the highest knowledge.

There is danger for the eye in seeing too clearly, danger for the ear in hearing too sharply and danger to the heart from caring too greatly.

Those who realise their folly are not true fools.

Transmit the established facts; do not transmit words of exaggeration. If you do that, you will probably come out all right.

The men of old breathed clear down to their heels.

You will always find an answer in the sound of water.

If you wish to care for your body, first of all take care of material things, though even when you have all the things you want, the body can still be uncared for

Breathing control gives man strength, vitality, inspiration, and magic powers.

Calculate what man knows and it cannot compare to what he doesn't know. Calculate the time he is alive and it cannot compare to the time before he was born. Yet man takes something so small and tries to exhaust the dimensions of something so large!

The Tao has no place for pettiness, and nor has Virtue. Pettiness is dangerous to Virtue; pettiness is dangerous to the Tao. It is said, rectify yourself and be done.

Can a man cling to the positive without any negative in contrast to which it is seen to be positive? If he claims to do so he is a rouge or a madman.

Men do not mirror themselves in running water - they mirror themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things.

Heaven is like an egg, and the earth is like the yolk of the egg.

The creature born is the creature dying.

Water becomes clear and transparent when in a quiescent stage. How much the more wonderful will be the mind of a sage when poised in quiescence! It is the mirror of heaven and earth, reflecting the ten thousand things.

Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone

If you have grasped the purpose of life there is no point in trying to make life into something it is not or cannot be.

Study is to study what cannot be studied. Undertaking means undertaking what cannot be undertaken. Philosophizing is to philosophize about what cannot be philosophized about. Knowing that knowing is unknowable is true perfection.

The true man of the past waited upon Heaven when dealing with people and did not wait upon people when dealing with Heaven.

Although things seem to be sometimes going up and sometimes descending, sometimes slipping away, nevertheless there is a reality, the same today as in the past. It does not change, for nothing can affect it. Could we not say it is one great harmony? So why shouldn't we ask about it...

The knowledge of the ancients reached the highest point-the time before anything existed. This is the highest point. It is exhaustive. There is no adding to it.

Men of this world all rejoice in others being like themselves, and object to others not being like themselves.

The perfect man of old looked after himself first before looking to help others.

Heaven cannot but be high. Earth cannot but be broad. The sun and moon cannot but revolve. All creation cannot but flourish. To do so is their TAO. But it is not from extensive study that this may be known, nor by dialectical skill that his may be made clear. The true sage will have none of these.

Man may rest in the eternal fitness; he may abide in the everlasting; and roam from the beginning to the end of all creation. He may bring his nature to a condition of ONE, he may nourish his strength; he may harmonise his virtue, and so put himself into partnership with God.

Joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, find no place in that man's breast; for to him all creation is ONE. And all things being thus united in ONE, his body and limbs are but as dust of the earth, and life and death, beginning, and end, are but as night and day, and cannot destroy his peace. How much less such trifles as gain or loss, misfortune or good fortune?

Verily God does not reward man for what he does, but for what he is.

Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chuang Tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tzu.

Big? Sure. But, he can't catch mice! So for your big tree. No use? Then plant it in the wasteland - in emptiness. Walk idly around it and rest under it's shadow. No axe or saw prepares its end. No one will ever cut it down. Useless? You should worry!.

The love of a Sage for his fellows likewise finds expression amongst mankind. Were he not told sop, he would not know that he loved his fellows. But whether he knows it or whether he does not know it, whether he hears it or whether he does not hear it, his love for his is without end, and mankind cease not to repose therein.

Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one. . . . When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course.

The bait is the means to get the fish where you want it, catch the fish and you forget the bait. The snare is the means to get the rabbit where you want it, catch the rabbit and forget the snare. Words are the means to get the idea where you want it, catch on to the idea and you forget about the words. Where shall I find a man who forgets about words, and have a word with him?

Great knowledge sees all in one. Small knowledge breaks down into the many.