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Zhuangzi Quotes

Zhuangzi quote from classy quote

If you'd called me an ox, I'd have said I was an ox; if you'd called me a horse, I'd have said I was a horse. If the reality is there and you refuse to accept the name men give it, you'll only lay yourself open to double harassment.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Acceptance Equanimity Indifference Self Sufficiency Slander Submission

The True Man of ancient times knew nothing of loving life, knew nothing of hating death. He emerged without delight; he went back in without a fuss. He came briskly, he went briskly, and that was all. He didn't forget where he began; he didn't try to find out where he would end. He received something and took pleasure in it; he forgot about it and handed it back again.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Acceptance Death Life Life And Death Pleasure Taoism

He who has mastered the true nature of life does not labor over what life cannot do. He who has mastered the true nature of fate does not labor over what knowledge cannot change.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Acceptance Equanimity

Cease striving. Then there will be transformation.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Buddhism Striving Transformation

When you're betting for tiles in an archery contest, you shoot with skill. When you're betting for fancy belt buckles, you worry about your aim. And when you're betting for real gold, you're a nervous wreck. Your skill is the same in all three cases - but because one prize means more to you than another, you let outside considerations weigh on your mind. He who looks too hard at the outside gets clumsy on the inside.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Anxiety Nervousness Selfconsciousness Worry

Eyes that are blind have no way to tell the loveliness of faces and features, eyes with no pupils have no way to tell the beauty of colored and embroidered silks.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Beauty Blindness Color Insight Perception

We can't expect a blind man to appreciate beautiful patterns or a deaf man to listen to bells and drums. And blindness and deafness are not confined to the body alone - the understanding has them, too.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Beauty Insight Perception

A man like this will not go where he has no will to go, will not do what he has no mind to do. Though the world might praise him and say he had really found something, he would look unconcerned and never turn his head; though the world might condemn him and say he had lost something, he would look serene and pay no heed. The praise and blame of the world are no loss or gain to him.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Enlightenment Freedom Sage Taoism

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

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Martial Arts Zen

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

Zhuangzi Chuang Tzu Lao Tzu Zen

Things joined by profit, when pressed by misfortune and danger, will cast each other aside.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Avarice Danger Greed Profit Taoism

A child, obeying his father and mother, goes wherever he is told, east or west, south or north. And the yin and yang - how much more are they to a man than father or mother! Now that they have brought me to the verge of death, if I should refuse to obey them, how perverse I would be! What fault is it of theirs? The Great Clod burdens me with form, labors me with life, eases me in old age, and rests me in death. So if I think well of my life, for the same reason I must think well of my death. When a skilled smith is casting metal, if the metal should leap up and say, 'I insist upon being made into a Moye!' he would surely regard it as very inauspicious metal indeed. Now, having had the audacity to take on human form once, if I should say, 'I don't want to be anything but a man! Nothing but a man!', the Creator would surely regard me as a most inauspicious sort of person. So now I think of heaven and earth as a great furnace, and the Creator as a skilled smith. Where could he send me that would not be all right? I will go off to sleep peacefully, and then with a start I will wake up.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Death God Rebirth Spirituality Taoism Transformation

You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves. Smash your form and body, spit out hearing and eyesight, forget you are a thing among other things, and you may join in great unity with the deep and boundless.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Boundlessness Inaction Taoism Unity Wuwei

A beam or pillar can be used to batter down a city wall, but it is no good for stopping up a little hole - this refers to a difference in function. Thoroughbreds like Qiji and Hualiu could gallop a thousand li in one day, but when it came to catching rats they were no match for the wildcat or the weasel - this refers to a difference in skill. The horned owl catches fleas at night and can spot the tip of a hair, but when daylight comes, no matter how wide it opens its eyes, it cannot see a mound or a hill - this refers to a difference in nature. Now do you say, that you are going to make Right your master and do away with Wrong, or make Order your master and do away with Disorder? If you do, then you have not understood the principle of heaven and earth or the nature of the ten thousand things. This is like saying that you are going to make Heaven your master and do away with Earth, or make Yin your master and do away with Yang. Obviously it is impossible.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Duality Good And Bad Interdependence Nonduality Opposites Right And Wrong Taoism Unity Wholeness Yang And Yin Yin And Yang

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

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Argument Right And Wrong Truth Unity

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

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Death Existentialism Life Tao Taoism

You forget your feet when the shoes are comfortable. You forget your waist when the belt is comfortable. Understanding forgets right and wrong when the mind is comfortable. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is comfortable. You begin with what is comfortable and never experience what is uncomfortable when you know the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Comfort Comfortable Equanimity Nonduality Right And Wrong Taoism

Don't you know about the praying mantis that waved its arms angrily in front of an approaching carriage, unaware that they were incapable of stopping it? Such was the high opinion it had of its talents.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Arrogance Hubris Overconfidence Pretension Talent

Forget about life, forget about worrying about right and wrong. Plunge into the unknown and the endless and find your place there!

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Endless Life Right Unknown Wrong

The tailor bird builds her nest in deep woods, she uses no more than one branch.The mole drinks off the river, it can only fill one belly.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Animal Metaphors Free And Easy Living With Less Simplicity

Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views - then the world will be governed.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Govern Simplicity Taoism Vastness

Do not use life to give life to death. Do not use death to bring death to life.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Death Life Life And Death Taoism

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?

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Sky I Am Butterfly

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

Zhuangzi Man I Am Butterfly

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

Zhuangzi Autumn Winter

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

Zhuangzi Nature Man Mind

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Striving Absence

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

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Joy River Walking

Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Men Honor Realize

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

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Cherish You Within

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Wisdom Small Speech

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Rewards Lowest Form

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

~ Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi Earth Returns
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