Zhuang Zhou Quotes

44 Sourced Quotes

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.

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

Zhuang Zhou
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.

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

Zhuang Zhou
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.

Zhuang Zhou
I do not know whether it was Chou dreaming that he was a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming that it was Chou.

Zhuang Zhou
To be constant is to be useful. To be useful is to realize one's true nature. Realization of one's true nature is happiness. When one reaches happiness, one is close to perfection.

Zhuang Zhou
The fish trap exists because of the fish: once you have gotten the meanings, you can forget the words.

Zhuang Zhou
"The prince keeps [a] tortoise carefully enclosed in a chest in his ancestral temple. Now would this tortoise rather be dead and have its remains venerated, or would it rather be alive and wagging its tail in the mud?" "It would rather be alive... and wagging its tail in the mud." "Begone!" cried Chuang-tzu. "I too will wag my tail in the mud."

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

Zhuang Zhou
All men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so that I can have a word with him?

Zhuang Zhou
Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.

Zhuang Zhou
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.

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

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

Zhuang Zhou
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.

Zhuang Zhou
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?

Zhuang Zhou
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.

Zhuang Zhou
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!

Zhuang Zhou
Banish wisdom, discard knowledge, and gangsters will stop!

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

Zhuang Zhou
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course.

Zhuang Zhou
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.

Zhuang Zhou
Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not be absorbed by activities. Do not think that you know. Be aware of all that is and dwell in the infinite. Wander where there is no path. Be all that heaven gave you, but act as though you have received nothing. Be empty, that is all.

Zhuang Zhou
Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit is empty and waits on all things.

Zhuang Zhou