Top 200 Zhuangzi Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Birth is not the beginning, Death is not the end.”

— Zhuangzi

2. “Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.”

— Zhuangzi

3. “Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.”

— Zhuangzi

4. “A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.”

— Zhuangzi

Featured in: Quotes About Ocean

5. “Life is finite, While knowledge is infinite.”

— Zhuangzi

6. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

7. “A path is made by walking on it.”

— Zhuangzi

8. “Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chuang Tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tzu.”

— Zhuangzi

9. “The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.”

— Zhuangzi

10. “The right way to go easy is to forget the right way...”

— Zhuangzi

11. “The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.”

— Zhuangzi

12. “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

13. “When an archer shoots for enjoyment, he has all his skill; when he shoots for a brass buckle, he gets nervous; when he shoots for a prize of gold, he begins to see two targets.”

— Zhuangzi

14. “Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not be absorbed by activities. Do not think that you know. Be aware of all that is and dwell in the infinite. Wander where there is no path. Be all that heaven gave you, but act as though you have received nothing. Be empty, that is all.”

— Zhuangzi

15. “Am I a human dreaming I am a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I am a human?”

— Zhuangzi

16. “Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth.”

— Zhuangzi

17. “You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog, the creature of a narrower sphere. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, the creature of a season.”

— Zhuangzi

Featured in: Summer Quotes

18. “Those who realise their folly are not true fools.”

— Zhuangzi

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

— Zhuangzi

Featured in: Quotes About Home

20. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

21. “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

22. “Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course.”

— Zhuangzi

23. “When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.”

— Zhuangzi

24. “All men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so that I can have a word with him?”

— Zhuangzi

25. “Those who follow the Tao are of clear mind. They do not load their mind with anxieties and are flexible in their adjustment to external conditions.”

— Zhuangzi

26. “When you’re dreaming, you don’t know it’s a dream. You might even interpret a dream in your dream – and then wake up and realize it was all a dream. Perhaps a great awakening will reveal this to be a dream as well.”

— Zhuangzi

27. “Silence, and non action are the root of all things.”

— Zhuangzi

28. “The sound of water says what I think.”

— Zhuangzi

29. “Perfect happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.”

— Zhuangzi

30. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

31. “Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.”

— Zhuangzi

32. “Breathing control gives man strength, vitality, inspiration, and magic powers.”

— Zhuangzi

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

— Zhuangzi

Featured in: Quotes About Water

34. “Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point.”

— Zhuangzi

35. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

36. “The ultimate happiness is doing nothing.”

— Zhuangzi

37. “My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it.”

— Zhuangzi

38. “If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.”

— Zhuangzi

39. “He who regards all things as one is a companion of Nature.”

— Zhuangzi

40. “For we can only know that we know nothing, and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

— Zhuangzi

41. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

42. “We are born from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awakening.”

— Zhuangzi

43. “Your mind must become one, do not try to understand with your ears but with your heart. Indeed, not with your heart but with your soul.”

— Zhuangzi

44. “Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind.”

— Zhuangzi

45. “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

46. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

47. “Water becomes clear and transparent when in a quiescent stage. How much the more wonderful will be the mind of a sage when poised in quiescence! It is the mirror of heaven and earth, reflecting the ten thousand things.”

— Zhuangzi

48. “Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”

— Zhuangzi

49. “Your preciousness lies in your essence; it cannot be lost by anything that happens.”

— Zhuangzi

50. “Let everything be allowed to do what it naturally does, so that its nature will be satisfied.”

— Zhuangzi