Explore Quotes by Zhuangzi

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

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.

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

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?

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.

When he tries to extend his power over objects, those objects gain control of him. He who is controlled by objects loses possession of his inner self... Prisoners in the world of object, they have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter! They are pressed down and crushed by external forces: fashion, the market, events, public opinion. Never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind!... What a pity!

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.

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?

People live their lives, constantly surrounded by anxiety. if they live long before dying, they end up in senility, worn out by concerns: a terrible fate! The body is treated in a very harsh fashion. Courageous men are seen by everyone under Heaven as worthy, but this doesn't preserve them from death. I am not sure I know whether this is sensible or not.

Let everything be allowed to do what it naturally does, so that its nature will be satisfied.

He who regards all things as one is a companion of Nature.

If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.

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.

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

Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone

Your preciousness lies in your essence; it cannot be lost by anything that happens.

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

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

'I shall have heaven and earth for my coffin and its shell; the sun and moon for my two round symbols of jade, the stars and constellations for my pearls and jewels; and all things assisting as the mourners. Will not the provisions for my funeral be complete? What could you add to them?'

Heaven does without doing through its purity, Earth does without doing through its calmness.