Top 200 Zhuangzi Quotes (2023 Update)
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151. “When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten.”

— Zhuangzi

152. “Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.”

— Zhuangzi

153. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

154. “The one-legged creature is envious of the millipede; the millipede is envious of the snake; the snake is envious of the wind; the wind is envious of the eye; the eye is envious of the heart.”

— Zhuangzi

155. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

156. “If we look on heaven and earth as a single crucible, and on the creator as the founder, would there be any place I could not go? When it is time, I will fall asleep, and when the right time comes, I will wake up again.”

— Zhuangzi

157. “The whole world is incapable of judging either right or wrong. but it is certain that actionless action can judge both right and wrong.”

— Zhuangzi

158. “Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.”

— Zhuangzi

159. “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 for.”

— Zhuangzi

160. “But you now, you wear your soul on your sleeve, exhausting your energy, propping yourself up on a tree, mumbling, or bent over your desk, asleep. Heaven gives you a form and you wear it out by pointless argument.”

— Zhuangzi

161. “Are you and I perchance caught up in a dream from which we have not yet awakened?”

— Zhuangzi

162. “A battering ram can knock down a city wall, but it cannot stop a hole. Different things have different uses.”

— Zhuangzi

163. “Man may rest in the eternal fitness; he may abide in the everlasting; and roam from the beginning to the end of all creation. He may bring his nature to a condition of ONE, he may nourish his strength; he may harmonise his virtue, and so put himself into partnership with God.”

— Zhuangzi

164. “Men of this world all rejoice in others being like themselves, and object to others not being like themselves.”

— Zhuangzi

165. “The man who has forgotten self may be said to have entered Heaven.”

— Zhuangzi

166. “The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror – going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.”

— Zhuangzi

167. “I obtained life because the time was right. I will lose life because it is time. Those who go quietly with the flow of nature are not worried by either joy or sorrow. People like these were considered in the past as having achieved freedom from bondage. Those who cannot free themselves are constrained by things.”

— Zhuangzi

168. “In an archery contest, when the stakes are earthenware tiles a contestant shoots with skill. When the stakes are belt buckles he becomes hesitant, and if the stakes are pure gold he becomes nervous and confused. There is no difference as to his skil.”

— Zhuangzi

169. “He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord.”

— Zhuangzi

170. “When a man does not dwell in self, then things will of themselves reveal their forms to him. His movement is like that of water, his stillness like that of a mirror, his responses like those of an echo.”

— Zhuangzi

171. “Only fools imagine they are already awake. How clearly they understand everything! How easily they distinguish this deception from that reality!”

— Zhuangzi

172. “You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves. Smash your form and body, spit out hearing and eyesight, forget you are a thing among other things, and you may join in great unity with the deep and boundless.”

— Zhuangzi

173. “If you have grasped the purpose of life there is no point in trying to make life into something it is not or cannot be.”

— Zhuangzi

174. “So it is said, for him who understands Heavenly joy, life is the working of Heaven; death is the transformation of things. In stillness, he and the yin share a single Virtue; in motion, he and the yang share a single flow.”

— Zhuangzi

175. “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...”

— Zhuangzi

176. “To go outside what your charge was, and to try to solve everything yourself, is dangerous.”

— Zhuangzi

177. “My most interesting memory is of my first real dream. I was a caterpillar, wriggling around in the earth, just the way a caterpillar would. Following my caterpillar whims, completely unaware of anyone.”

— Zhuangzi

178. “The true man of the past waited upon Heaven when dealing with people and did not wait upon people when dealing with Heaven.”

— Zhuangzi

179. “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.”

— Zhuangzi

180. “The hundred parts of the body are all complete in their places. Which should one prefer? Do you like them all equally? Are they all servants? Are they unable to control one another and need a ruler? Or do they become rulers and servants in turn? Is there any true ruler other than themselves?”

— Zhuangzi

181. “Can a man cling to the positive without any negative in contrast to which it is seen to be positive? If he claims to do so he is a rouge or a madman.”

— Zhuangzi

182. “In the midst of darkness, he alone sees the dawn; in the midst of the soundless, he alone hears harmony.”

— Zhuangzi

183. “When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions: Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.”

— Zhuangzi

184. “A fish-trap is for catching fish; once you’ve caught the fish, you can forget about the trap. A rabbit-snare is for catching rabbits; once you’ve caught the rabbit, you can forget about the snare. Words are for catching ideas; once you’ve caught the idea, you can forget about the words. Where can I find a person who knows how to forget about words so that I can have a few words with them?”

— Zhuangzi

185. “Only he who has no use for the empire is fit to be entrusted with it.”

— Zhuangzi

186. “To use a horse to show that a horse is not a horse is not as good as using a non-horse to show that a horse is not a horse...”

— Zhuangzi

187. “Waiting for changing opinions is like waiting for nothing.”

— Zhuangzi

188. “When you’re betting for tiles in an archery contest, you shoot with skill. When you’re betting for fancy belt buckles, you worry about your aim. And when you’re betting for real gold, you’re a nervous wreck. Your skill is the same in all three cases – but because one prize means more to you than another, you let outside considerations weigh on your mind. He who looks too hard at the outside gets clumsy on the inside.”

— Zhuangzi

189. “If you were to hide the world in the world, so that nothing could get away, this would be the final reality of the constancy of things.”

— Zhuangzi

190. “For all people strive to grasp what they do not know, while none strive to grasp what they already know; and all strive to discredit what they do not excel in, while none strive to discredit what they do excel in. This is why there is chaos.”

— Zhuangzi

191. “Don’t go in and hide; don’t come out and shine; stand stock-still in the middle.”

— Zhuangzi

192. “You forget your feet when the shoes are comfortable. You forget your waist when the belt is comfortable. Understanding forgets right and wrong when the mind is comfortable. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is comfortable. You begin with what is comfortable and never experience what is uncomfortable when you know the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.”

— Zhuangzi

193. “The true man breathes with his heels.”

— Zhuangzi

194. “Things joined by profit, when pressed by misfortune and danger, will cast each other aside.”

— Zhuangzi

195. “To use a finger as a metaphor for the nonfingerness of a finger is not as good as using nonfingerness as a metaphor for the nonfingerness of a finger.”

— Zhuangzi

196. “The sage is still not because he takes stillness to be good and therefore is still. The ten thousand things are insufficient to distract his mind – that is the reason he is still.”

— Zhuangzi

197. “If right were ultimately right, its differentiation from not-right would require no debate.”

— Zhuangzi

198. “How do I know that the dead don’t regret the way they used to cling to life?”

— Zhuangzi

199. “When Zhuangzi was about to die, his disciples expressed a desire to give him a sumptuous burial. Zhuangzi said, “I will have heaven and earth for my coffin and coffin shell, the sun and moon for my pair of jade discs, the stars and constellations for my pearls and beads, and the ten thousand things for my parting gifts. The furnishings for my funeral are already prepared – what is there to add?”

— Zhuangzi

200. “A good completion takes a long time; a bad completion cannot be changed later.”

— Zhuangzi