Zhuangzi quotes

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. (Zhuangzi)
Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.
Zhuangzi
Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.
Zhuangzi
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
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.
Zhuangzi
Where is that man who has forgotten words that I may have a word with him?
Zhuangzi
We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
Zhuangzi
Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth.
Zhuangzi
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.
Zhuangzi
I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
Zhuangzi
Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home! (Zhuangzi)
The sound of water says what I think.
Zhuangzi
If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge.
Zhuangzi
When the heart is right, "for" and "against" are forgotten.
Zhuangzi
Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.
Zhuangzi
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?
Zhuangzi
A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.
Zhuangzi
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.
Zhuangzi
We are born from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awakening.
Zhuangzi
A path is made by walking on it.
Zhuangzi
The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world. (Zhuangzi)
To be truly ignorant, be content with your own knowledge.
Zhuangzi
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.
Zhuangzi
I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river.
Zhuangzi
Those who realize their folly are not true fools.
Zhuangzi