black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

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

Life Point Purpose
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

Animal Creature Eyes Heart Jealous Wind
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
There is a beginning. There is no beginning of that beginning. There is something. There is nothing.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Philosophy
The saying goes, ‘The sage rests, truly rests and is at ease.’ This manifests itself in calmness and detachment, so that worries and distress cannot affect him, nothing unpleasant can disturb him, his Virtue is complete and his spirit is not stirred up.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Compete Complete Disturb Ease Manifestation Priest Rest Sage Virtue
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

Gradual Opinion Ourselves Perspective Point View
The space under the sky is occupied by all things in their unity.
ZHUANGZI

Occupy Sky Space Unity
For we can only know that we know nothing, and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
ZHUANGZI

Dangerous Knowledge Known
Great knowledge sees all in one. Small knowledge breaks down into the many.
ZHUANGZI

Break Greatness Knowledge Oneself Small
Sound intelligence promises victory in every battle.
ZHUANGZI

Battle Intelligence Promise Sound Victory
The greatest tragedy that can befall a person is the atrophy of his mind.
ZHUANGZI

Greatness Mindset Person Tragedy
All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.
ZHUANGZI

Lost Man Need Religion Water
Birth is not the beginning, Death is not the end.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Born Death End
All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.
ZHUANGZI

Known Men Utility
Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.
ZHUANGZI

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

Different Power Stop Wall

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Zhuangzi Quotes