Zhuangzi famous quotes

The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
-- Zhuangzi

#Doubt #Sage #Torches

The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?
-- Zhuangzi

#Philosophical #Men #Rabbits

A path is made by walking on it.
-- Zhuangzi

#Path #Made #Walking

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.
-- Zhuangzi

#Fall #Winter #Autumn

Perfect happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.
-- Zhuangzi

#Happiness #Happy #Perfect

When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten; when the belt fits, the belly is forgotten; when the heart is right, "for" and "against" are forgotten. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is comfortable. One begins with what is comfortable and never experiences what is uncomfortable, when one knows the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.
-- Zhuangzi

#Heart #Shoes #Feet

The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.
-- Zhuangzi

#Wise #Men #Mountain

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

#Home #Years #Forget

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now 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.
-- Zhuangzi

#Dream #Butterfly #Men

To be truly ignorant, be content with your own knowledge.
-- Zhuangzi

#Life #Letting Go #Ignorant

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

#Earth #Return

To have a human form is a joyful thing.
-- Zhuangzi

#Joy #Joyful #Form

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

#Encouraging #Mind #Flow

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.
-- Zhuangzi

#Men #Mind #Charity

If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge.
-- Zhuangzi

#Eye #Heart #Intellectual

The sage has the sun and moon by his side and the universe under his arm. He blends everything into a harmonious whole. . . . He blends the disparities of ten thousand years into one complete purity. All things are blended like this and mutually involve each other.
-- Zhuangzi

#Moon #Years #Sage

Luck implies an absolute absence of any principle.
-- Zhuangzi

#Luck #Principles #Absence

The baby looks at things all day without winking; that is because his eyes are not focused on any particular object. He goes without knowing where he is going, and stops without knowing what he is doing. He merges himself within the surroundings and moves along with it. These are the principles of mental hygiene.
-- Zhuangzi

#Baby #Moving #Eye

Your mind must become one, do not try to understand with your ears but with your heart. Indeed, not with your heart but with your soul.
-- Zhuangzi

#Heart #Soul #Mind

Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right it would differ so clearly from not right that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument.
-- Zhuangzi

#Chinese #Needs #Would Be

During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream.
-- Zhuangzi

#Dream #May #Awakening

Thus, those who say they would have right without its correlate, wrong; or good government without its correlate, misrule, do not apprehend the great principles of the universe, nor the nature of all creation.
-- Zhuangzi

#Government #Principles #Creation

The greatest tragedy that can befall a person is the atrophy of his mind.
-- Zhuangzi

#Mind #Tragedy #Persons

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

#Men #Rivers #Lakes

Never admire a man by his strength; judge him in how he uses it- A way is made by walking it
-- Zhuangzi

#Men #Judging #Chinese

The sound of water says what I think.
-- Zhuangzi

#Thinking #Water #Sound

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.
-- Zhuangzi

#Beauty #Beautiful #May

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?
-- Zhuangzi

#Men #Forgotten

When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets - He is out of his mind! His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting- And the need to win drains him of power.
-- Zhuangzi

#Archer #Caring #Winning

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.
-- Zhuangzi

#Dream #Butterfly #Men

Men of the world who value the Way all turn to books. But books are nothing more than words. Words have value; what is of value in words is meaning. Meaning has something it is pursuing, but the thing that it is pursuing cannot be put into words and handed down. The world values words and hands down books but, though the world values them, I do not think them worth valuing. What the world takes to be values is not real value.
-- Zhuangzi

#Real #Book #Men

Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.
-- Zhuangzi

#Cherish #Curse

A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation.
-- Zhuangzi

#Jail #Thieves #Rulers

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.
-- Zhuangzi

#Mind #Flow #May