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

Zhuangzi

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

Forget Himself Man Word
The sage embraces things. Ordinary men discriminate amongst them and parade their discriminations before others. So I say; those who discriminate, fail to see.
ZHUANGZI

Discrimination Embrace Failure Man Myself Ordinary See
The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
ZHUANGZI

Chaos Doubt Priest
Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy.
ZHUANGZI

Broad Busy Calm Greatness Understand
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

Anxiety Condition Follow Mindset Religious
Standards are different for all things, so the standard set by man is by no means the only ‘certain’ standard. If you mistake what is relative for something certain, you have strayed far from the ultimate truth.
ZHUANGZI

Different Man Mistake Standard Truth Ultimate Yourself
When you are identified with the One, all things will be complete to you.
ZHUANGZI

Complete Identify Spirituality Yourself
The living all find death unpleasant; men mourn over it. And yet, what is death, but the unbending of the bow and its return to its case?
ZHUANGZI

Case Death Finding Live Pleasant Return
Fish live in water. Men die in it. Nature is diverse, and not all tastes are the same.
ZHUANGZI

Death Deep Diversity Live Men Nature Taste Water
Study is to study what cannot be studied. Undertaking means undertaking what cannot be undertaken. Philosophizing is to philosophize about what cannot be philosophized about. Knowing that knowing is unknowable is true perfection.
ZHUANGZI

Knowledge Known Perfection Philosophy Religious Spirituality Study True Unknown
Your preciousness lies in your essence; it cannot be lost by anything that happens.
ZHUANGZI

Essence Lost Lying Precious Yourself
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly.
ZHUANGZI

Butterfly Dreams Himself Incarnation
Tao is the source of both fullness and emptiness. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness.
ZHUANGZI

Complete Empty Full Religion Source
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Mindset Water
I am going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to try to listen recklessly.
ZHUANGZI

Listening Reckless Talk Try Word Yourself
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

Better Choice King Man Position Stream Wisdom World

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

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

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