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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

Luck implies an absolute absence of any principle.
ZHUANGZI

Absence Luck Principle
Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.
ZHUANGZI

Government Mindset Personal Room Simplicity Spirit View Wander Way World
Human life is limited, but knowledge is limitless. To drive the limited in pursuit of the limitless is fatal; and to presume that one really knows is fatal indeed!
ZHUANGZI

Death Drive Human Knowledge Life Limitation Oneself Pursuit
To go outside what your charge was, and to try to solve everything yourself, is dangerous.
ZHUANGZI

Charge Dangerous Solution Yourself
To regard the fundamental as the essence, to regard things as coarse, to regard accumulation as deficiency, and to dwell quietly alone with the spiritual and the intelligent – herein lie the techniques of Tao of the ancients.
ZHUANGZI

Alone Ancient Essence Fundamental Intelligence Quiet Spiritual Technique
Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.
ZHUANGZI

Generous Greatness Passion Small Speech Wisdom
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

Affair Attraction Control Drive Forget Freedom Heart Man Philosophy Shoe Spirituality Yourself
Great knowledge is universal. Small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter.
ZHUANGZI

Greatness Inspirational Knowledge Limitation Literature Poet Small Universe Value
The Tao is in all things, in their divisions and their fullness. What I dislike about divisions is that they multiply, and what i dislike about multiplication is that it makes people want to hold fast to it. So people go out and forget to return, seeing little more than ghosts.
ZHUANGZI

Division Fast Forget Hold People Return See
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
My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it.
ZHUANGZI

Finding Happiness Opinion Stop Yourself
He who does his work like a machine grows a heart like a machine and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses his simplicity. He who has lost his simplicity becomes unsure in the strivings of his soul.
ZHUANGZI

Carry Growth Himself Lose Machine Work
When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.
ZHUANGZI

Ignorance People Philosophy
Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit is empty and waits on all things.
ZHUANGZI

Empty Listening Mindset Recognition Spirit Wait
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Creation Mindset Mirror Universe Water
Either in conflict with others or in harmony with them, we go through life like a runaway horse, unable to stop.
ZHUANGZI

Conflict Harmony Life Stop

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.

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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.

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