black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

The men of old breathed clear down to their heels.

Zhuangzi

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

Awake Easy Fools Imagination Reality Understand
He who regards all things as one is a companion of Nature.
ZHUANGZI

Himself Infinite Nature Oneself Regard Whole
When affirmation and negation came into being, Tao faded. After Tao faded, then came one-sided attachments.
ZHUANGZI

Affirmation Attachment Negative Oneself Religious
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
Heaven does without doing through its purity, Earth does without doing through its calmness.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Earth Heaven Purity
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly.
ZHUANGZI

Butterfly Dreams Himself Incarnation
Take care of your body, then the rest will automatically become stronger.
ZHUANGZI

Automatic Body Care Strong Willing
All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.
ZHUANGZI

Known Men Utility
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

Heart Insight Intellectual Knowledge Pierce
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

Beginning End Exercise Flow Religious Road Spirituality Thinking
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
All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten. The foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and valuable, and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten.
ZHUANGZI

Beautiful Existence Rare Regard Transformation Ugly Value
Do not let the artificial obliterate the natural; do not let will obliterate destiny; do not let virtue be sacrificed to fame.
ZHUANGZI

Artificial Destiny Fame Natural Sacrifice Virtue
Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.
ZHUANGZI

Beyond Dependent Honor Knowledge Lying Man
Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.
ZHUANGZI

Cherish Curse Knowledge Yourself
A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.
ZHUANGZI

Deep Ocean One Liner

The men of old breathed clear down to their heels.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

The men of old breathed clear down to their heels.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Zhuangzi Quotes