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Zhuangzi on Philosophy

369 BC–286 BC China

← All quotes by Zhuangzi

6 quotes

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

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

A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.

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.

During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream.

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now 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. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things.

Attribution

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