Zhuangzi Quotes

The man who has forgotten self may be said to have entered Heaven.

Ja sinulla on iso puu, etkä tiedä, mitä sillä tekisit! Mikset siirrä sitä tyhjälle kentälle tai asumattomaan metsään? Siellä voisit rauhassa kuljeskella sen ympärillä tai levätä sen siimeksessä. Se olisi turvassa kirveeltä, eikä kukaan vahingoittaisi sitä, sillä ellei siitä olisi hyötyä muille, mikä sitä silloin vahingoittaisi?

When she had just died, I could not help being affected. Soon, however, I examined the matter from the very beginning. At the very beginning, she was not living, having no form, nor even substance. But somehow or other there was then her substance, then her form, and then her life. Now by a further change, she has died. The whole process is like the sequence of the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While she is thus lying in the great mansion of the universe, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of the natural laws. Therefore I stopped!

Alas! It saddened me to see someone lose himself like that, and then it saddened me that I was saddened about that person, and then it saddened me that I was saddened that I was saddened about that person. And from there it just keeps going on and on.

The one-legged creature is envious of the millipede; the millipede 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.

The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.

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

[le monde] n’a pas besoin d’être gouverné ; en fait, il ne devrait pas être gouverné

He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord.

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?

Because there is, there is not, and because there is not, there is.

To use 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...

Great truths do not take hold of the hearts of the masses. And now, as the world is in error, how shall I, though I know the true path, how shall I guide? If I know that I cannot succeed and yet try to force success, this world would be but another source of error. Better then to desist and strive no more. But if I do not strive, who will?

The Spirit Tower has its guardian, but unless it understands who its guardian is, it cannot be guarded.

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, believing that all the beauty in the world belonged to him alone.