Zhuangzi Quotes
The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.
The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.
If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge.
Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course.
When an archer shoots for enjoyment, he has all his skill; when he shoots for a brass buckle, he gets nervous; when he shoots for a prize of gold, he begins to see two targets.
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.
Never admire a man by his strength; judge him in how he uses it- A way is made by walking it
Your mind must become one, do not try to understand with your ears but with your heart. Indeed, not with your heart but with your soul.
Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.
Great knowledge is universal. Small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter.
Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point.
The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.
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?
When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.
And how do I know that the hate of death is not like a man who has lost his home when young and does not know where his home is to return to?
Those who follow the Tao are of clear mind. They do not load their mind with anxieties and are flexible in their adjustment to external conditions.
Good fortune is as light as a feather, but nobody knows how to pick it up. Misfortune is as heavy as earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of it's way.
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.
A battering ram can knock down a city wall, but it cannot stop a hole. Different things have different uses.
The enlightened attention rejects nothing nor welcomes anything-like a mirror it responds equally to all.
Look at this window: it is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light.
You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog, the creature of a narrower sphere. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, the creature of a season.
When affirmation and negation came into being, Tao faded. After Tao faded, then came one-sided attachments.
To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.
Men of this world all rejoice in others being like themselves, and object to others not being like themselves.
Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.
Let everything be allowed to do what it naturally does, so that its nature will be satisfied.
Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one. . . . When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course.