Zhuangzi
Chinese Daoist philosopher of the fourth century BC and the pivotal figure of classical philosophical Daoism; of the compiled Zhuangzi, only the Inner Chapters (1 to 7) are attributed to his lifetime.
Zhuangzi did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsThe adaptability of a thing is oft-times its bane. The inability of the yak to catch mice saves it from the snare which is fatal to the wild cat.
↗Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (tr. Herbert A. Giles, 1889)gutenberg.org 1st of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsNow I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
↗Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (tr. Herbert A. Giles, 1889)gutenberg.org 2nd of 5 in this piece
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Our reading
Life is limited but knowledge is not, and using the limited to pursue the limitless is fatal
Their wordsMy life has a limit, but my knowledge is without limit. To drive the limited in search of the limitless, is fatal; and the knowledge of those who do this is fatally lost.
↗Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (tr. Herbert A. Giles, 1889)gutenberg.org 3rd of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsThus it is that virtue should prevail and outward form be forgotten. But mankind forgets not that which is to be forgotten, forgetting that which is not to be forgotten.
↗Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (tr. Herbert A. Giles, 1889)gutenberg.org 4th of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsBy a man without passions I mean one who does not permit good and evil to disturb his internal economy, but rather falls in with whatever happens, as a matter of course, and does not add to the sum of his mortality.
↗Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (tr. Herbert A. Giles, 1889)gutenberg.org 5th of 5 in this piece
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.