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

Zhuang Zhou
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.

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

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

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
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.

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

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

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
When there is no more separation between 'this' and 'that,' it is called the still-point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.

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

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
Everything can be a "that"; everything can be a "this." One man cannot see things as another sees them... Therefore it is said "That" comes from "this" and "this" comes from "that" - which means "that" and "this" give birth to one another.

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
How do I know that loving life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death I am not like a man who, having left home in his youth, has forgotten the way back?...someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe that they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, and that man a herdsman- how dense!

Zhuang Zhou
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.

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

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
"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
Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman – how dense! Confucius and you are both dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle.

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

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
Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.

Zhuang Zhou
For all men 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.

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

Zhuang Zhou