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Zhuangzi Quotes | Quotes said by Zhuangzi

  • Zhuangzi Quote #1

    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 Quote #2

    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 Quote #3

    A good completion takes a long time; a bad completion cannot be changed later.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #4

    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 Quote #5

    A path is made by walking on it.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #6

    All attempts to create something admirable are the weapons of evil. You may think you are practising benevolence and righteousness, but in effect you will be creating a kind of artificiality. Where a model exists, copies will be made of it; where success has been gained, boasting follows; where debate exists, there will be outbreaks of hostility.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #7

    But a gentleman may embrace a doctrine without necessarily wearing the garb that goes with it, and he may wear the garb without necessarily comprehending the doctrine.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #8

    Can you be a little baby? The baby howls all day, yet its throat never gets hoarse - harmony at its height! The baby makes fists all day, yet its fingers never get cramped - virtue is all it holds to. The baby stares all day without blinking its eyes - it has no preferences in the world of externals.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #9

    Cease striving. Then there will be transformation.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #10

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

  • Zhuangzi Quote #11

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

  • Zhuangzi Quote #12

    Don't go in and hide; don't come out and shine; stand stock-still in the middle.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #13

    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 Quote #14

    Everything has its that, everything has its this. From the point of view of that you cannot see it, but through understanding you can know it. So I say, that comes out of this and this depends on that - which is to say that this 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 acceptability there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be acceptability. 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 such a way, but illuminates all in the light of Heaven. He too recognizes a this, but a this which is also that, a that which is also this. His that has both a right and a wrong in it; his this too has both a right and a wrong in it. So, in fact, does he still have a this and that? Or does he in fact no longer have a this and that? A state in which this and that no longer find their opposites is called the hinge of the Way. When the hinge is fitted into the socket, it can respond endlessly. Its right then is a single endlessness and its wrong too is a single endlessness. So, I say, the best thing to use is clarity.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #15

    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 Quote #16

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

  • Zhuangzi Quote #17

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

  • Zhuangzi Quote #18

    Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #19

    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 Quote #20

    He who knows he is a fool is not the biggest fool; he who knows he is confused is not in the worst confusion. The man in the worst confusion will end his life without ever getting straightened out; the biggest fool will end his life without ever seeing the light. If three men are traveling along and one is confused, they will still get where they are going - because confusion is in the minority. But if two of them are confused, then they can walk until they are exhausted and never get anywhere - because confusion is in the majority.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #21

    He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #22

    I cannot tell if what the world considers ‘happiness’ is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away headlong, grim and obsessed, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction. All the while they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #23

    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 Quote #24

    I have heard that he who knows what is enough will not let himself be entangled by thoughts of gain; that he who really understands how to find satisfaction will not be afraid of other kinds of loss; and that he who practices the cultivation of what is within him will not be ashamed because he holds no position in society.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #25

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

  • Zhuangzi Quote #26

    I've heard my teacher say, where there are machines, there are bound to be machine worries; where there are machine worries, there are bound to be machine hearts. With a machine heart in your breast, you've spoiled what was pure and simple; and without the pure and simple, the life of the spirit knows no rest.

  • Zhuangzi Quote #27

    If a man crosses a river
    and an empty boat collides with his own skiff,
    Even though he be bad tempered man
    He will not become very angry.
    But if he sees a man in the boat,
    He will shout at him to steer clear.
    If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, and yet again, and begin cursing.
    And all because someone is in the boat.
    Yet if the boat were empty,
    He would not be shouting, and not angry.
    If you can empty your own boat
    Crossing the river of the world,
    No one will oppose you,
    No one will seek to harm you

  • Zhuangzi Quote #28

    If a man, having lashed two hulls together, is crossing a river, and an empty boat happens along and bumps into him, no matter how hot-tempered the man may be, he will not get angry. But if there should be someone in the other boat, then he will shout out to haul this way or veer that. If his first shout is unheeded, he will shout again, and if that is not heard, he will shout a third time, this time with a torrent of curses following. In the first instance, he wasn't angry; now in the second he is. Earlier he faced emptiness, now he faces occupancy. If a man could succeed in making himself empty, and in that way wander through the world, then who could do him harm?

  • Zhuangzi Quote #29

    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 Quote #30

    In all affairs, whether large or small, there are few men who reach a happy conclusion except through the Way. If you do not succeed, you are bound to suffer from the judgment of men. If you do succeed, you are bound to suffer from the yin and yang. To suffer no harm whether or not you succeed - only the man who has virtue can do that.

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