The Best of Chuang Tzu (+160 quotes)

"The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a person who has forgotten the words so that I can talk to him?"

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters

"Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you do. This is the highest."

Chuang Tzu

"A path is made by walking on it."

Chuang Tzu

"Reward and punishment is the lowest form of education."

Chuang Tzu

"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."

Chuang Tzu

"Happiness is the absence of the pursuit of happiness."

Chuang Tzu

"To one mind that is still, the whole universe submits."

Chuang Tzu

"Let your heart rest in peace.
Observe the hustle and bustle of the creatures
but consider their return.

Chuang Tzu

If you don't recognize the origin,
you stumble into confusion and sorrow.
When you realize where you're coming from,
you become naturally tolerant,
interested, amused,
kind as a grandmother,
dignified like a king.
Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,
you can deal with whatever life brings you,
And when death comes, you'll be ready."

Chuang Tzu

"During our dreams, we do not know that we are dreaming. We may even dream about interpreting a dream. Only when we wake up do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream."

Chuang Tzu, The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of Chuang Tzu.

"To be truly ignorant, be content with your own knowledge."

Chuang Tzu

"I can't say whether what the world thinks is 'happiness' is happiness or not. All I know is that when I look at how they achieve it, I see them being swept along headlong, grim and possessed, in the general rush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or change direction. All the while they claim they are on the verge of happiness."

Chuang Tzu

"When a man crosses a river
and an empty boat collides with his own boat,
he does not get very angry, even if he is a bad-tempered man.
But when he sees a man in the boat,
he will shout at him to stay away.
If the call is not heard, he will shout again, and again, and start cursing.
And all because someone is in the boat.
However, if the boat were empty,
he would not scream and would not be angry.
If you can empty your own boat
and cross the river of the world,
no one will oppose you,
no one will try to harm you"

Chuang Tzu

"Forget the years, forget the differences. Jump into the infinite and make it your home!"

Chuang Tzu

"The sound of the water says what I'm thinking."

Chuang Tzu

"The cinnamon tree is edible: so it is cut down!

The lacquer tree is useful: you mutilate it.

Every person knows how useful it is to be useful.

No one seems to know

How useful it is to be useless."

Chuang Tzu

"Only those who have no use for the realm are fit to be entrusted with it."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The baby looks at things all day without blinking; this is because its eyes are not focused on any particular object. It walks without knowing where it is going and stops without knowing what it is doing. It merges with its surroundings and moves with them. These are the principles of mental hygiene."

Chuang Tzu

"We are born from a peaceful sleep, and we die in a peaceful awakening."

Chuang Tzu

"A frog in a well cannot discuss the ocean because it is limited by the size of its well. A summer insect cannot discuss ice because it knows only its own season. A narrow-minded scholar cannot discuss the Tao because he is limited by his teachings. Now you have stepped over your banks and seen the Great Ocean. You now know your own inferiority, so now it is possible to discuss great principles with you."

Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu

"When you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear to penetrate to the heart of things, and you don't need intellectual knowledge."

Chuang Tzu

"When the heart is right, "for" and "against" are forgotten."

Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu

"The petty thief is imprisoned, but the great thief becomes a feudal lord."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The people of the world who value the Way all turn to books. But books are nothing but words. Words have value; what is of value in words is meaning. Meaning has something it pursues, but what it pursues cannot be put into words and passed on. The world values words and passes on books, but although the world values them, I do not think they are of value. What the world thinks is value is not real value."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The perfect man uses his mind like a mirror - pursuing nothing, receiving nothing, responding but not storing."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"You can't discuss the ocean with a fountain frog - it's bounded by the space in which it lives. You can't discuss ice with a summer insect - it's bounded by a single season."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Great wisdom is generous, small wisdom is contentious."

Chuang Tzu

"You have only to persist in inaction, and things will transform. Shatter your form and body, spit out your hearing and sight, forget that you are a thing among other things, and you can join in great unity with the deep and boundless."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Where is the man who forgot the words so I can have a word with him?"

Chuang Tzu

"People honor what lies within their knowledge, but they do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond."

Chuang Tzu

"The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit trap is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of the word is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten the words? He is the one I want to talk to."

Chuang Tzu

"Thus it is said: To him who understands heavenly joy, life is the working of heaven; death is the transformation of things. In stillness, he and the yin share a single virtue; in movement, he and the yang share a single flow."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"I heard my teacher say: Where there are machines, there are bound to be machine sorrows; where there are machine sorrows, there are bound to be machine hearts. With a machine heart in your breast, you have corrupted what was pure and simple; and without the pure and simple, the life of the mind knows no rest."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.

Chuang Tzu

"All people know the usefulness of the useful, but no one knows the usefulness of the useless!"

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"And how do I know that hating death is not like a man who lost his home in his youth and does not know where to return?"

Chuang Tzu

"All attempts to create something admirable are the weapons of evil. You may think you are practicing benevolence and righteousness, but in reality you are creating a kind of artificiality. Where there is an example, it is copied; where there is success, boasting follows; where there is debate, there are outbursts of hostility."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Your life has a limit, but knowledge has none. If you use what is limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Cherish what is within you and exclude what is without, for much knowledge is a curse."

Chuang Tzu

"Words are not just wind. Words have something to say. But if what they have to say is not fixed, do they really say anything? Or do they say nothing at all? People assume that words are different from the peeping of baby birds, but is there a difference or not? What is the basis for the way that we have true and false? What is the basis of the words that there is right and wrong? How can the way disappear and not exist? How can words exist and not be acceptable? If the way is based on small achievements and the words are based on vain show, then we have the right and wrong of the Confucians and the Moists. What one calls right, another calls wrong; what one calls wrong, another calls right. But if we are to call their wrong right and their right wrong, the best we can use is clarity."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings

"But the stupid think that they are awake, eager and cheerful, that they understand things, call this man ruler, that shepherd - how stupid! Confucius and you, you are both dreaming! And when I say that you are dreaming, I am dreaming too. Words like these are called the highest fraud."

Chuang Tzu

"Zhuangzi's wife died. When Huizu went to offer his condolences, he found Zhuangzi sitting with his legs outstretched, tapping on a tub and singing. "You lived with her, she raised your children and grew old," Huizu said. "It should be enough not to cry over her death. But tapping a tub and singing - that's going too far, isn't it?"
Zhuangzi said, "You are wrong. When she first died, do you think I didn't grieve like everyone else? But I looked back at her beginnings and the time before she was born. Not only to the time before she was born, but also to the time before she had a body. Not only to the time before she had a body, but also to the time before she had a mind. Amidst the confusion of miracles and mysteries, one change took place and she had a spirit. Another change and she had a body. Another change and she was born. Now there was another change and she is dead. It is like the passing of the four seasons: Spring, summer, autumn, winter. Now she will lie down peacefully in a big room. If I were to run after her crying and sobbing, it would show that I don't understand anything about fate. So I stopped."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Stop striving. Then there will be transformation."

Chuang Tzu

"Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamed that I was a butterfly flying around and enjoying myself. I had no idea that I was Chuang Tzu. Then suddenly I woke up and I was Chuang Tzu again. But I couldn't tell if I was Chuang Tzu dreaming to be a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming to be Chuang Tzu now? There must be some difference between Chuang Tzu and a butterfly! We call this the transformation of things."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tsu: The Inner Chapters

"When affirmation and negation came into existence, Tao faded. After Tao faded, the one-sided attachments came. "

Chuang Tzu

"The one-legged man is envious of the centipede; the centipede is envious of the snake; the snake is envious of the wind; the wind is envious of the eye; the eye is envious of the heart."

Chuang Tzu

"Let your mind wander in simplicity, merge your mind with vastness, follow things as they are, and leave no room for personal views - then the world will be ruled."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a person who has forgotten the words so that I can talk to him?"

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"The man who knows he is a fool is not the greatest fool; the man who knows he is confused is not in the worst confusion. The man in the worst confusion will end his life without ever getting back on his feet; the greatest fool will end his life without ever seeing the light. If three men are on the road and one is confused, they will still reach their destination - because the confused are in the minority. But if two of them are confused, they can run to exhaustion and still get nowhere - because the confused are in the majority."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"I have heard that he who knows what is enough is not entangled by thoughts of gain; that he who truly understands how to find satisfaction is not afraid of other kinds of loss; and that he who practices the cultivation of what is within him is not ashamed of having no position in society."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Forgetting the whole world is easy; letting the whole world forget you is hard."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Living in society complicates and confuses our existence and makes us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tsu: The Inner Chapters

"If you had called me an ox, I would have said I was an ox; if you had called me a horse, I would have said I was a horse. When reality is there and you refuse to accept the name people give it, you only make yourself doubly ridiculous."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"A beam or pillar can be used to tear down a city wall, but it is no good for plugging a small hole - this refers to a difference in function. Thoroughbreds like Qiji and Hualiu can gallop a thousand Li in a day, but when it comes to catching rats, they are no match for the wildcat or weasel - this refers to a difference in ability. The great horned owl catches fleas at night and can see the tip of a hair, but when it comes daylight, no matter how wide it opens its eyes, it cannot see a hill or a mountain - this refers to a difference in nature. Now, do you want to make right your master and abolish wrong, or make order your master and abolish disorder? If you do, then you have not understood the principle of heaven and earth or the nature of the ten thousand things. That is like saying you want to make heaven your master and abolish earth, or you want to make yin your master and abolish yang. It is obvious that this is impossible."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The true man of old knew nothing about loving life, knew nothing about hating death. He came out without joy, he went in without fuss. He came briskly, he went briskly, and that was all. He didn't forget where he began, and he didn't try to figure out where he would end up. He received something and took pleasure in it; he forgot it and gave it back."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Not to understand is profound; to understand is superficial. Not to understand is to be within; to understand is to be without."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Do not go in and hide; do not come out and shine; stand still in the midst."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The wise man is not silent because he thinks silence is good and therefore he is silent. The ten thousand things are not enough to distract his mind - that is the reason why he is silent."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Great truths do not enter the hearts of the masses. And now that the world is in error, how can I, even though I know the true path, lead them? If I know that I cannot succeed and yet try to force success, this world would be just another source of error. Then it is better to stop and not strive. But if I don't strive, who will?"

Chuang Tzu

"Where can I find a man who has forgotten the words? He is the one I want to talk to."

Chuang Tzu

"Don't you know the story of the praying mantis who furiously flailed her arms in front of an approaching carriage because she didn't know she wouldn't be able to stop it? That's how highly she valued her talents."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"There's the globe,
the basis of my physical existence.
It tires me with work and duties,
it gives me peace in my old age,
she gives me peace in death.
For the one who provided me with what I needed in life
will also give me what I need in death."

Chuang Tzu

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

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"He who has mastered the true nature of life does not care about what life cannot do. He who has mastered the true nature of destiny does not care about what knowledge cannot change."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Rest in inaction, and the world will reform itself; forget your body and spit out intelligence. Ignore all differences and become one with the infinite. Let go of your mind and free your spirit. Be empty, be free of soul. This is how things will grow and prosper and return to their rest and peace. They return to their root. If they return to their root without knowing it, the result will be a formless whole that can never be cut, for to know it is to cut it. (Great Mist says to General Clouds)"

Chuang Tzu

"The time of the autumn floods came and the hundred streams poured into the Yellow River. ... Then the lord of the river was beside himself with joy, because he believed that all the beauty of the world belonged to him alone."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings

"A good degree takes a long time; a bad degree can't be changed later."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Forget life, forget brooding about right and wrong. Dive into the unknown and the infinite and find your place there!"

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"Also, I've heard that those who like to praise people to their faces also like to condemn them behind their backs."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Things connected by gain, when pressed by misfortune and danger, will cast one another aside."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right, it would be so clearly different from what is not right that there would be no reason to argue. If it were really so, it would be so clearly different from what is not so that there would be no reason to argue. Forget the years, forget the distinctions. Jump into the boundless and make it your home!"

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"But a gentleman can accept a teaching without necessarily wearing the garment that goes with it, and he can wear the garment without necessarily understanding the teaching."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

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

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The little child learns to speak even though he has no learned teachers - because he lives with those who know how to speak."

Chuang Tzu

"It can be passed on but not received.
It can be preserved but not seen."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"If you're competing for tokens in an archery contest, you're shooting with skill. If you're betting for fancy belt buckles, you're worried about your aim. And if 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 the other, you let external factors influence you. If you look too much at the outside, you become unskilled on the inside."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"In the world, everyone knows enough to pursue what they don't know, but no one knows enough to pursue what they already know. Everyone knows enough to condemn what they don't think is good, but no one knows enough to condemn what they already think is good."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"How do I know that the love of life is not a delusion? Or that the fear of death is not like a young person who runs away from home and cannot find his way back? The lady Li Chi was the daughter of a border guard, Ai. When the state of Chin captured her, she cried until she soaked her robes. Then she came to the king's palace, shared his bed, ate his food, and repented of her tears. How shall I know if the dead now repent of their former clinging to life? 'When morning comes, those who dream of drunken feasting may weep and groan; when morning comes, those who dream of weeping and groaning go hunting in the fields. When they dream, they do not know that it is a dream. In their dreams they may even think they are interpreting dreams, but it is only when they wake up that they know it was a dream. Eventually the day of reckoning and awakening will come, and then we will know that it was all just a big dream. Only fools think they are awake now and really know what is going on, playing the prince and then the servant. What fools! The master and you are both living in a dream. When I speak of a dream, I am also dreaming. This very word is a deception. If, after ten thousand years, we could once meet a really great sage, one who understands, it would seem to us as if it had been only one morning."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"We cannot expect a blind person to appreciate beautiful patterns, or a deaf person to listen to bells and drums. And blindness and deafness are not confined to the body - the mind has them too."

Chuang Tzu

"The mind that rests in what it does not understand is the best."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"When Zhuangzi was dying, his disciples expressed a wish to give him a magnificent funeral. Zhuangzi said, 'I want to have heaven and earth for my coffin and coffin bowl, the sun and moon for my pair of jade discs, the stars and constellations for my pearls and beads, and the ten thousand things for my parting gifts.' The accoutrements for my funeral are already prepared - what more is there to add?"

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"When I speak of good hearing, I don't mean listening to others, but simply listening to yourself. When I speak of good eyesight, I don't mean that you look at others, but only at yourself. He who looks not at himself but at others, who looks not at himself but at others, gets what others have and does not get what he himself has. He finds joy in what brings joy to others, but he does not find joy in what would bring joy to himself."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"If a man does not dwell in himself, things will reveal their forms to him of their own accord. His movement is like that of water, his silence like that of a mirror, his answers like that of an echo."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"People who excuse their mistakes and claim they don't deserve to be punished - there are many of them. But those who don't excuse their mistakes and admit that they didn't deserve to be spared - they are few."

Chuang Tzu

"Life, death, preservation, loss, failure, success, poverty, wealth, worthiness, unworthiness, slander, fame, hunger, thirst, cold, heat - these are the changes of the world, the workings of fate. Day and night they change their place before our eyes, and wisdom cannot spy out their source. Therefore, they should not be enough to destroy your harmony; they should not be allowed to enter the storehouse of your mind. If you can harmonize them and enjoy them, master them and never be at a loss for joy; if you can do this day and night without interruption and make it spring, mingle with everything and create the moment in your own mind - that's what I call being fully in the force."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"When people do not forget what can be forgotten, but forget what cannot be forgotten - that can be called true forgetting."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Words have value; what is of value in words is meaning. Meaning has something it pursues, but the thing it pursues cannot be put into words and handed down."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"If you were to hide the world within the world so that nothing could escape, this would be the ultimate reality of the permanence of things."

Chuang Tzu

"In the midst of darkness, only he sees the dawn; in the midst of soundlessness, only he hears the harmony."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"When an ugly man becomes a father
And a son is born to him
In the middle of the night
he trembles and lights a lamp
And runs to be full of fear
look at the face of the child
To see who it resembles."

Chuang Tzu

"Can you be a little baby? The baby howls all day, but his throat never gets hoarse - harmony at its peak! The baby makes fists all day, but his fingers are never cramped - virtue is all he holds on to. The baby stares all day without blinking its eyes - it has no preferences in the world of appearances."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"People all pay homage to what the mind understands, but no one understands enough to rely on what the mind does not understand, and thereby understand."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The person who has forgotten himself can say that he has entered heaven."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"A man like him does not go where he does not want to go, he does not do what he does not intend to do. Even if the world praises him and says that he has really found something, he would look unconcerned and never turn his head; even if the world condemns him and says that he has lost something, he would look calmly and not pay attention. Praise and blame from the world are neither loss nor gain for him."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Thus it is that the great man, by his actions, is not bent on harming others, nor does he make much of benevolence and charity; he makes no effort to enrich himself, nor does he hold the servant at the gate in low esteem; he will not haggle over possessions and wealth, nor does he make much of the fact that he has turned them away; he does not ask anyone for help, nor does he make much of his own self-reliance, nor does he despise the greedy and the miserly; he does not follow the crowd, nor does he make much of being so different; he comes behind the crowd, but does not make much of those who advance by flattery. The titles and honors of this world are of no interest to him, nor does he worry about the shame of punishments. He knows that there is no difference between right and wrong or between great and small. I have heard it said, "The Tao man acquires no reputation, perfect virtue is not pursued, the great man is selfless." In perfection, that is the path he follows."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"It comes out of no source, it goes in again through no opening. It has a reality and yet no place where it resides; it has a duration and yet no beginning and no end. Something emerges, but through no opening - this refers to the fact that it has reality. It has reality, but no place where it resides - this refers to the dimension of space. It has duration, but no beginning and no end - this refers to the dimension of time. There is life, there is death, there is stepping out and stepping back - but in stepping out and stepping back, its form is never seen. This is called the gate of heaven. The gate of heaven is non-being. The ten thousand things emerge from non-being. Being cannot create being from being; it must necessarily emerge from non-being. Non-being is absolute non-being, and this is where the sage hides."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"I dreamed I was a butterfly fluttering around in the sky; then I woke up. Now I ask myself: am I a human being dreaming of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming of being a human being?"

Chuang Tzu

"Eyes that are blind cannot see the beauty of faces and features; eyes without pupils cannot see the beauty of colored and embroidered silk."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Today I fell asleep under a plum tree. There I dreamed that I was a butterfly and flew so beautifully. Then I fell asleep and the dream ended. Now I have to ask myself, am I Zhuang Zi who dreamed of a butterfly? Or am I that butterfly dreaming that I am Zhuang Zi?"

Chuang Tzu

"With all the confusion in the world today, no matter how many times I show the way, what good does it do? And if I know it's no use and force myself to do it anyway, that's also a kind of confusion. So it's best to leave things alone and not force them. If I don't force things, at least I'm not causing anyone any worry."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"To protect yourself from thieves who slit open suitcases, rifle through bags and break open boxes, you should strap on your bags and lock them. The whole world knows that this shows wisdom. But when a master thief comes, he simply takes the suitcase, picks up the bag, carries away the box and runs away with it, caring only whether the straps and locks hold! In such a case, it turns out that what seemed to be wisdom to the owner was useful only to the master thief!"

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"How do I know that the dead do not repent of how they clung to life?"

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: The Essential Writings With Selections from Traditional Commentaries

"Those who count things are not worth helping people."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"Emptiness is the fasting of the spirit."

Chuang Tzu

"Whoever steals a belt buckle pays with his life; whoever steals a state becomes a feudal lord."

Chuang Tzu

"A wandering carpenter, named Stone, saw on his travels a huge old oak tree standing in a field near an earth altar. The carpenter said to his apprentice, who was admiring the oak, "That's a useless tree. If you wanted to build a ship, it would soon rot; if you wanted to make tools, they would break. You can't do anything useful with this tree, and that's why it has grown so old."

Chuang Tzu

"In an age of perfect virtue, the worthy are not honored, the gifted are not employed. The rulers are like the high branches of a tree, the people like the deer in the fields. They do what is right, but they do not know that this is righteousness. They love one another, but they do not know that this is benevolence. They are faithful, but they do not know that this is loyalty. They are trustworthy, but they do not know that this is good faith. They wriggle around like insects, rendering service to each other, but they do not know that they are kind. Therefore, they move without leaving a trace, act without leaving a memory of what they have done."

Chuang Tzu

"The Great Course is unspoken. Great demonstration does not use words. Great humanity is not human. Great righteousness is not choosy. Great courage is not invasive. For when the course becomes explicit, it ceases to be the course. When words demonstrate through debate, they can no longer communicate. If humanity is constantly maintained, it cannot reach maturity. If righteousness is pure, it cannot extend to others. If courage is invasive, it cannot succeed. These five are originally round, but they are forced to become angular."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: The Essential Writings With Selections from Traditional Commentaries

"A child who obeys his father and mother goes where he is told, east or west, south or north. And the yin and the yang - how much more they are to a person than father or mother! If I should refuse to obey them now that they have brought me to the brink of death, how perverted I would be! What is their fault? The great sheol burdens me with form, toils me in life, relieves me in old age, and lets me rest in death. So if I think well of my life, I must think well of my death for the same reason. If a skilled blacksmith pours metal and the metal jumps up and says, "I really want to be made into a moye," he would certainly consider it to be very inauspicious metal. Now, if I have the audacity to take human form for once and say, "I don't want to be anything but a human! I don't want to be anything but a human being!', the Creator would certainly consider me a most unfavorable person. Therefore, I imagine heaven and earth like a great furnace and the Creator like a skillful blacksmith. Where could he send me that would not be alright? I will fall asleep peacefully and then wake up with a fright."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"When there is both a name and a reality,
we live in the realm of things;
When there is neither a name nor a reality,
we exist in the emptiness of things.
We can speak and think,
but the more we talk, the further away we are.
What is not yet born cannot be forbidden,
What is already dead cannot be prevented.
Death and birth are not far away,
It is their principle that cannot be seen."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"Master Dongguo asked Zhuangzi, "This thing called the Way-where does it exist?"
Zhuangzi said, "There is no place where it does not exist."
"Come," said Master Dongguo, "you must be more specific!"
"It's in the ant."
"It's that low?"
"It's in the panic grass."
"But that's even lower!"
"It's in the tiles and shards."
"How can it be so low?"
"It's in the piss and shit!"

Chuang Tzu

"How do I know that the love of life is not a delusion? How do I know that if I hate death, I am not like a man who left home in his youth and forgot the way back?
Lady Li was the daughter of the border guard of Ai. When she was first captured and taken to the state of Jin, she cried until her tears soaked the collar of her robe. But later, when she was living in the ruler's palace, sharing the couch with him and eating the delicious meat of his table, she wondered why she had ever cried. How do I know that the dead do not wonder why they ever longed for life?"

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Someday the day of reckoning and awakening will come, and then we will know that it was all a big dream. Only fools think they are awake now and really know what is going on, playing the prince and then playing the servant. What fools! The master and you are both living in a dream. When I speak of a dream, I am also dreaming. This very word is a deception. If, after ten thousand years, we could once meet a really great sage, one who understands, it would seem to us as if it had been only one morning."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"Now I ask myself, am I a human dreaming of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming of being a human?"

Chuang Tzu

"Joy and anger,
Sorrow and happiness,
Caution and remorse
Come over us in turn,
with constantly changing mood.

They come like music from caves,
like wood when played by the wind,
or grow like mushrooms from moisture.

Daily and nightly they alternate
but we can't tell where they come from.

I should not be without these feelings.
Without me they would not have an instrument"

Chuang Tzu

"Thus the wise man uses various rights and wrongs to harmonize with others, yet remains at rest in the center of heaven, the potter's wheel."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: The Essential Writings With Selections from Traditional Commentaries

"The greatest courtesy
Is free from all formality.
Perfect behavior
Is free of concerns.
Perfect wisdom
Is unplanned.
Perfect love
Is without demonstrations.
Perfect sincerity offers
No guarantee."

Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu

"Waiting for changing opinions is like waiting for nothing.

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters

"It is common knowledge that the courageous spirit of one man can inspire an army of thousands to victory. If one who cares about an ordinary gain can make such an impact, how much more will one who cares about greater things make!"

Chuang Tzu

"Everything has its "this", everything has its "this". From the point of view of "that" you cannot see it, but by understanding you can recognize it. So I say that "this" comes from "that" and "that" depends on "that" - that is, "that" and "that" give birth to each other. But where there is birth, there must be death; where there is death, there must be birth. Where there is acceptance, there must be unacceptance; where there is unacceptance, there must be acceptance. Where there is recognition of right, there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong, there must be recognition of right. Therefore, the sage does not proceed in this way, but illuminates everything with the light of heaven. He also recognizes a "this," but a "this" that is also "that," a "that" that is also "that." His "this" has both a right and a wrong; his "this" also has both a right and a wrong in it. So, does he actually still have a "this" and a "that"? Or, in reality, does he no longer have a "this" and a "that"? A state in which "this" and "that" no longer meet their opposites is called the hinge of the way. When the hinge is fitted into the frame, it can react endlessly. Its right is then one infinity and its wrong is also one infinity. That is why I say the best thing to use is clarity."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"You shall find the same joy in one state as in the other, and thereby be free from worry, that's all. But now that the things that have happened are taking their leave, you stop rejoicing. From that point of view, you will have joy, but it will always be doomed."

Chuang Tzu

"Those who try to satisfy the spirit of man by hindering it with ceremonies and music, and by acting upon charity and devotion, have lost their original nature"

Chuang Tzu

"And one day there will be a great awakening, when we know that all this is a great dream. But the stupid ones believe that they are awake, they are eager to imagine that they understand everything, they call this man ruler, that shepherd - how stupid! Confucius and you, both of you are dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming too. Words like these are called the supreme hoax. But after ten thousand generations, a great sage may appear who knows their meaning, and it will still be as if he appeared with amazing speed."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"The fact is that those who do not see themselves but see others, who do not comprehend themselves but comprehend others, acquire what others have but do not possess themselves. They are attracted to what others enjoy, but find no enjoyment in themselves."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"Now, Lord, you have a big tree and you don't know how to use it. Why don't you plant it in the middle of nowhere, where you can walk or fall asleep in its shade? No axe under heaven will attack it, nor shorten its days, for something that is useless is never disturbed."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"The spirit tower has its guardian, but if it does not understand who its guardian is, it cannot be guarded."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Therefore, the Way, which is wise within and royal without, has fallen into darkness and is no longer perceived clearly, has been veiled and no longer shines forth. The people of the world all follow their own desires and make these their "teachings". How sad! The hundred schools go on and on instead of turning back, and are destined never to unite again. The scholars of later ages have unfortunately never perceived the purity of heaven and earth, the great body of the ancients, and "the art of the way" is being torn and torn by the world as time goes by."

Chuang Tzu

"The man of the spirit, on the other hand, hates it when people gather around him. He avoids the crowd. For where there are many people, there are many opinions and little unity. There is nothing to be gained by supporting a crowd of imbeciles who are doomed to end up in a quarrel with each other.

The man of the mind is neither very intimate with anyone, nor very distant. He is self-aware and keeps his balance in such a way that he does not come into conflict with anyone. That is the true man! He lets the ants be smart. He lets the mutton stink with activity. He imitates the fish swimming unconcernedly, surrounded by a friendly element, minding his own business. The true man sees what the eye sees and does not add something that is not there. He hears what the ears hear, and does not perceive imaginary undertones or overtones. He understands things in their obvious interpretation and does not concern himself with hidden meanings and mysteries. His path is therefore a straight line. Yet he may change his direction when circumstances suggest."

Chuang Tzu

"When she had just died, I couldn't help but be affected. Soon, however, I examined the matter from the beginning. At the very beginning, she was not alive, she had no form and no substance. But somehow then there was her substance, then her form, and then her life. Now, through another change, it has died. The whole process is like the sequence of the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter. If I were to cry and lament now that she is lying in the great mansion of the universe, it would mean that I do not know the laws of nature. That's why I stopped!"

Chuang Tzu

"I have received life because the time was ripe. I will lose life because it is time. Those who go quietly with the flow of nature are not troubled by joy or sorrow. People like these were considered free from bondage in the past. Those who cannot free themselves are shackled by things."

Chuang Tzu

"I'm going to try to say some careless words, and I want you to listen carelessly."

Chuang Tzu

"Using a finger as a metaphor for the non-fingerness of a finger is not as good as using non-fingerness as a metaphor for the non-fingerness of a finger."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"Zhuangzi and Huizi were walking along the dam of the Hao River when Zhuangzi said, "Look at the minnows coming out and darting around where they want to! The fish like that!"
Huizi said, "You are not a fish, how would you know what the fish like?"
Zhuangzi said, "You are not me, so how do you know that I do not know what pleases the fish?"
Huizi said, "I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. On the other hand, you're not a fish either - surely that proves you don't know what fish like!"
Zhuangzi said, "Please let's go back to your original question. You asked me how I know what fish like - so you already knew I knew when you asked the question. I know because I am standing here next to the Hao."

Chuang Tzu

"If a man who has tied two boats together crosses a river, and an empty boat comes along and collides with him, he will not be angry, no matter how quick-tempered he is. But if someone is in the other boat, he will shout to pull in that direction or go the other way. If his first shout goes unheard, he shouts again, and if that too is not heard, he shouts a third time, this time with a torrent of curses. The first time he was not angry, the second time he is now. Before he was facing emptiness, now he is facing occupancy. If a person manages to make himself empty and wander through the world in this way, who could harm him?"

Chuang Tzu

"Suppose I try to say something. How can I know that when I say I know something, I don't really not know it? Or how can I know that when I say I don't know something, I really don't know it?"

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"You will always find an answer in the sound of water."

Chuang Tzu

"A fish trap is for catching fish; when you have caught the fish, you can forget about the fish trap. A rabbit snare is for catching rabbits; when you have caught the rabbit, you can forget about the snare. Words are for catching ideas; when you have caught the idea, you can forget the words. Where can I find a person who knows how to forget words, so I can exchange a few words with him?"

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries

"If right were ultimately right, its distinction from non-right would require no debate.

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: The Essential Writings With Selections from Traditional Commentaries

"Ah," said Lien Shu, "it is true that a blind person cannot perceive beautiful patterns and shapes, and a deaf person cannot perceive the music of bells and drums. But blindness and deafness affect people not only physically, but also in their minds and attitudes."

Chuang Tzu, The Inner Chapters: The Classic Taoist Text

"The whole world could praise Song Rongzi and it would not make him exert himself; the whole world could condemn him and it would not make him mope. He drew a clear line between the internal and the external, and recognized the boundaries of true glory and disgrace."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings

"The path is created when we walk it."

Chuang Tzu

"A hunting pheasant has to walk ten steps to eat a morsel and a hundred to drink a sip of water. Yet he doesn't want to be tamed and put in a cage. Even if he were treated like a king, he could never be happy and content."

Chuang Tzu

"Using a horse to show that a horse is not a horse is not as good as using a non-horse to show that a horse is not a horse..."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings

"Once we have fully preserved the physical form, its parts do not fail to perform their functions until the end comes. Whether in conflict with things or in harmony with them, they pursue their way to the end, with the speed of a galloping horse that cannot be stopped. To toil all one's life without seeing the fruits of one's labor, and to be tired and exhausted from one's work without knowing where he is going"

Chuang Tzu

"The friendship of the wise
Is tasteless like water.
The friendship of fools
Is sweet like wine.
But the tastelessness of the wise
Brings true affection
And the taste of the company of fools
Ends in hate."

Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu

"In all matters, big or small, there are few people who reach a happy conclusion except through the Way. If you do not succeed, you must suffer from people's judgment. If you succeed, you must suffer from the yin and yang. Not suffering any harm, whether you succeed or not - only the one who has virtue can do that."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he was a butterfly. A butterfly that fluttered around happily - was he revealing what he thought himself to be? He knew nothing of Zhou. When he awoke all of a sudden, there he was - Zhou. But he didn't know whether he was Zhou dreaming of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of being Zhou. Surely there must be a difference between Zhou and the butterfly. This is known in the transformation of things."

Chuang Tzu, The Inner Chapters

"Chuang Tzu's book is like a travelogue. As such, it meanders back and forth between continents, pausing to talk about nutrition, giving exchange rates, breaking off to speculate, offering a bus schedule, recounting an amusing incident, quoting from poems, telling a story, quoting scripture. If you try to read it like a novel or a philosophical manual, you are asking it, this travelogue of life, to do something it is not really meant to do. And always watch for the mocking laughter of Chuang Tzu."

Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu

"Why do you have to understand the process of change and form your mind on that basis before you can have a teacher? Even an idiot has his teacher. But if you do not adhere to that mind and still insist on your right and wrong, it is like saying you left for Yue today and arrived there yesterday."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings

"There is a beginning. There is no beginning from this beginning. There is no beginning of this no beginning of the beginning. There is something. There is nothing. There is something before the beginning of something and nothing, and something before this. Suddenly there is something and nothing. But between the something and the nothing, I still don't know what the something is and what the nothing is. Now I just said something, but I don't really know if I said something or not."

Chuang Tzu

"Tian Kaizhi said, "In Lu, there was a Shan Bao who lived among the cliffs, drank only water, and did not hunt for gain like other people. So he lived for seventy years and still had the complexion of a small child. Unfortunately, he met a hungry tiger that killed and ate him. And then there was Zhang Yi - there were none of the big families and noble mansions that he did not hurry to visit. For forty years he went on like this, then he got an internal fever, fell ill and died. Shan Bao took care of his inside and the tiger ate his outside. Zhang Yi took care of the outside and the disease attacked him from the inside. Both men failed to give the stragglers a beating."

Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters

"I recognize the joy of fish
In flow
By my own joy when I walk along the same river.

Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu

"Knowing when to stop
Knowing when to get stuck
Through our own actions,
This is the right start!"

Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu

"The one who is afraid of dying is just a lost child looking for his home."

Chuang Tzu

"Heaven, earth and I live together. All things and I form an inseparable unity."

Chuang Tzu

"Therefore, the mind that rests in what it does not understand is the best."

Chuang Tzu, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

"The tailor bird builds its nest in deep woods, it uses no more than a twig.The mole drinks from the river, it can fill only one belly.

Chuang Tzu, The Inner Chapters: The Classic Taoist Text

"The Dao is at the limit of the world of things. Language and silence are not sufficient to represent the idea of it. Neither language nor silence can be the highest expression of our thinking about it."

Chuang Tzu

"The Dao does not love busyness. Busyness leads to overload; overload leads to restlessness; restlessness leads to worry, and with worry one is hopelessly lost."

Chuang Tzu

"The True Men of old used the eye to look at the eye, the ear to look at the ear, the heart to find the heart again. Such men, when level, were true to the carpenter's line; when they changed, they stayed the course."

Chuang Tzu, The Inner Chapters

"Because they exist, they don't exist, and because they don't exist, they exist."

Chuang Tzu

"The fish trap exists because of the fish; when you have the fish, you can forget about the trap. The rabbit trap exists because of the rabbit; when you have caught the rabbit, you can forget about the snare. Words exist because of the meaning; when you understand the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten the words so that I can talk to him?"

Chuang Tzu, Zhuangzi: Basic Writings

"with the answers." The question Zhuangzi faces is indeed one of the most fundamental human problems: How should I live my life? Which of the alternative paths should I take? How do I come to prefer one path over the other? Why do I see things the way I do, and why should I see them the way I do and not differently, and why should I choose one way and not the other? Zhuangzi's answer to this problem, simply put, is as follows: This question can never be answered as posed because our understanding consciousness can never know why it sees things one way and not another, because it cannot justify its own judgments and is actually incapable of serving as a guide to life. Consciously weighing alternatives, using one's mind to make a decision about what is best, and then consciously following the chosen path - this is the basic structure of all purposeful action and conscious knowledge, the basis of all ethics, all philosophy, all politics, all human efforts at improvement, and it is precisely this that Zhuangzi seems to think is ridiculous and impossible. Knowledge is unreliable, will is unreliable, tradition is unreliable, intuition is unreliable, logic is unreliable, faith is unreliable. But what else is there?"

Chuang Tzu, Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings With Selections from Traditional Commentaries

"Therefore, in an age of Perfect Virtue, people's gait is slow and ambling; their gaze is calm and mild. In such an age, the mountains have no paths and roads, the lakes no boats and bridges. The ten thousand things live kind by kind, one group settling close to another. Birds and animals form their flocks and herds; grass and trees grow to full size. So it comes about that you can tie a rope around the birds and animals and lead them around, or bend down the branch and peek into the nest of the crow and the magpie. In this age of Perfect Virtue, people live like the birds and animals, grouping side by side with the ten thousand things. Who knows anything about "gentleman" or "petty bourgeois"? Dull and ignorant people have no wisdom; therefore, their virtue does not depart from them. Dull and ignorant, they have no desire; that is called unpolished simplicity. In unpolished simplicity, people attain their true nature."

Chuang Tzu