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Zhuangzi Quotes

369 BC–286 BC China

Zhuāngzǐ (莊子; c. 369 BC – c. 286 BC), literally Master Zhuang, was a Chinese philosopher, who is supposed to have lived during the Warring States Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of Thought. His name is also transliterated as Zhuang Zi, Zhuang Zhou, Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tse.

China
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Philosophers

Also known as: Chuang Chou, Chuang Tse, Chuang Tzu, Chuangtse, Zhuang Zhou, Zhuang Zi

Random Zhuangzi quote

38 quotes

He who knows what is of God and who knows what is of Man has reached indeed the height (of wisdom).

How do I know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life?

From the Three Dynasties down to the present day it has been like this. The good and honest people are ignored, while spineless flatterers are advanced.

Away then with wisdom and knowledge, and great robbers will disappear!

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

Life is a loan with which the borrower does but add more dust and dirt to the sum total of existence.

Perfect happiness is keeping yourself alive, and only actionless action can have this affect.

All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.

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

He who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar.

One who seeks fame and thereby loses his real self is no gentleman.

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

The one who knows he is confused is not that confused.

You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog.

Everyone in the world knows how to seek for knowledge that they do not have, but do not know how to find what they already know.

To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.

Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature.

Men do not mirror themselves in running water, they mirror themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things.

How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know the way home?

If I cannot sing where there is death, then I cannot sing in life, because life is a continuous death.

Meetings with Remarkable People (2017)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Zhuangzi (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.