Zhuangzi
To have attained to the human form is a source of joy... What an incomparable bliss it is to undergo these countless transitions.Collection: Life
All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.Collection: Men
The whole world is incapable of judging either right or wrong. but it is certain that actionless action can judge both right and wrong.Collection: Judging
There may be difficulty at the moment, but I will not lose the Virtue that I possess. It is when the ice and snow are on them that we see the strength of the cypress and the pine. I am grateful for this trouble around me, because it gives me an opportunity to realize how fortunate I am.Collection: Grateful
Who knows when the end is reached? Death may be the beginning of life. How do I know that love of life is not a delusion after all? How do I know that he who dreads to die is as a child who has lost the way and cannot find his way home? How do I know that the dead repent of having previously clung to life?Collection: Death
The true man of the past waited upon Heaven when dealing with people and did not wait upon people when dealing with Heaven.Collection: Past
When I talk about having good hearing, I don't mean just listening, but listening to yourself. When I talk about good eyesight, I don't mean just looking, but looking at yourself.Collection: Mean
He who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar.Collection: Self
Tao is beyond words and beyond things. It is not expressed either in word or in silence. Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended.Collection: Silence
The sage has the sun and moon by his side and the universe under his arm. He blends everything into a harmonious whole. . . . He blends the disparities of ten thousand years into one complete purity. All things are blended like this and mutually involve each other.Collection: Moon
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly...Collection: Butterfly
All that is limited by form, semblance, sound, color is called object. Among them all, man alone is more than an object. Though, like objects, he has form and semblance, He is not limited to form. He is more. He can attain to formlessness. When he is beyond form and semblance, beyond "this" and "that," where is the comparison with another object? Where is the conflict? What can stand in his way? He will rest in his eternal place which is no-place. He will be hidden in his own unfathomable secret. His nature sinks to its root in the One. His vitality, his power hide in secret Tao.Collection: Men
Life is finite, While knowledge is infinite.Collection: Chinese
There are no greater adversaries than yin and yang, because nothing in Heaven or on Earth escapes them. But it is not yin and yang that do this, it is your heart that makes it so.Collection: Heart
Men of the world who value the Way all turn to books. But books are nothing more than words. Words have value; what is of value in words is meaning. Meaning has something it is pursuing, but the thing that it is pursuing cannot be put into words and handed down. The world values words and hands down books but, though the world values them, I do not think them worth valuing. What the world takes to be values is not real value.Collection: Real
A sage steers by the bright light of confusion and doubt.Collection: Light
Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit is empty and waits on all things.Collection: Waiting
The knowledge of the ancients reached the highest point-the time before anything existed. This is the highest point. It is exhaustive. There is no adding to it.Collection: Creation
Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!Collection: Home
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.Collection: Exercise
The true man breathes with his heels.Collection: Life
He who regards all things as one is a companion of Nature.Collection: Nature
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.Collection: Light
You are still guided by your expectations.Collection: Expectations
Easy is right. Begin right and you are easy. Continue easy and you are right. The right way to go easy is to forget the right way, and forget that the going is easy.Collection: Spiritual
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.Collection: Chinese
Do not let the artificial obliterate the natural; do not let will obliterate destiny; do not let virtue be sacrificed to fame.Collection: Destiny
When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets - He is out of his mind! His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting- And the need to win drains him of power.Collection: Archer
Either in conflict with others or in harmony with them, we go through life like a runaway horse, unable to stop.Collection: Horse
If there is existence, there must be non-existence. And if there was a time when nothing existed, there must have been a time before that - when even nothing did not exist. Suddenly, when nothing came into existence, could one really say whether it belonged to the category of existence or non-existence?Collection: Spiritual
The Portal of God is nonexistence. All things sprang from nonexistence. Existence could not make existence existence. It must have proceeded from nonexistence, and nonexistence and nothing are one. Herein is the abiding place of the sage.Collection: Abiding
The creature born is the creature dying.Collection: Acceptance
When you are identified with the One, all things will be complete to you.Collection: All Things
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.Collection: Water
The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror.Collection: Men
The perfect man of old looked after himself first before looking to help others.Collection: Helping Others
Birth is not the beginning, Death is not the end.Collection: Spiritual
Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.Collection: Cherish
When there is no more separation between 'this' and 'that,' it is called the still-point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.Collection: Circles
The saying goes, 'The sage rests, truly rests and is at ease.' This manifests itself in calmness and detachment, so that worries and distress cannot affect him, nothing unpleasant can disturb him, his Virtue is complete and his spirit is not stirred up.Collection: Worry
All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.Collection: Men
Although things seem to be sometimes going up and sometimes descending, sometimes slipping away, nevertheless there is a reality, the same today as in the past. It does not change, for nothing can affect it. Could we not say it is one great harmony? So why shouldn't we ask about it.Collection: Past
The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present.Collection: Wisdom
If you wish to care for your body, first of all take care of material things, though even when you have all the things you want, the body can still be uncared forCollection: Wish
We possess our body by chance and we are already pleased with it. If our physical bodies went through ten thousand transformations without end, how incomparable would this joy be! Therefore the sage roams freely in the realm in which nothing can escape, but all endures.Collection: Joy
The eyes envy the mind.Collection: Eye
Where can I find a man who has forgotten words, so I can have a few words with him?Collection: Men
The fact is that those who do not see themselves but who see others, who fail to grasp of themselves but who grasp others, take possession of what others have but fail to possess themselves. they are attracted to what others enjoy but fail to find enjoyment in themselves.Collection: Facts
When affirmation and negation came into being, Tao faded. After Tao faded, then came one-sided attachments.Collection: Attachment