Zhuangzi Quotes

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

Fish live in water. Men die in it.Nature is diverse, and not all tastes are the same.

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

To examine oneself makes good use of sight.

Being is thoughtless-beyond and beneath all categories of thought. Expression is the realization of creative thought. Being is still; expression, moving. But then if I do not strive, who will?

The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty to the ear, or to the mind.

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.

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

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

Do not let the artificial obliterate the natural; do not let will obliterate destiny; do not let virtue be sacrificed to fame.

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

Horses have hoofs to carry them over frost and snow; hair, to protect them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their heels.... Such is the real nature of horses.

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

Are you and I perchance caught up in a dream from which we have not yet awakened?

Each one's destiny cannot be altered.

The eye is a menace to clear sight, the ear is a menace to subtle hearing, the mind is a menace to wisdom, every organ of the senses is a menace to its own capacity.

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

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.

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

The whole world is incapable of judging either right or wrong. but it is certain that actionless action can judge both right and wrong.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

To have attained to the human form is a source of joy... What an incomparable bliss it is to undergo these countless transitions.

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

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.

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

Tao is beyond words and beyond things. It is not expressed either in word or in silence. Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended.

By ethical argument and moral principle the greatest crimes are eventually shown to have been necessary, and, in fact, a signal benefit to mankind.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The men of old breathed clear down to their heels.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The true man breathes with his heels.

Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.

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

The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.