Chuang-tzu
Quotes by Chuang-tzu
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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. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is comfortable. One begins with what is comfortable and never experiences what is uncomfortable, when one knows the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.
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The knowledge of the ancients reached the highest point-the time before anything existed. This is the highest point. It is exhaustive. There is no adding to it.
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I was given life because it was my time, and now I take leave of it according to the same law. Content with the natural sequence of these events, I am touched neither by joy nor by grief. I am simply hanging in the air ... incapable of freeing myself, tied by the threads of things.
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The skull opened its eyes wide, furrowed its brows, and said, Why should I throw away a happiness greater than a king's to once again thrust myself into the troubles and anxieties of mankind?
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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?
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He who dreams ... does not know he is dreaming... . Only when he awakens does he know he has dreamt. But there is also the great awakening (ta-chiao), and then we see that [everything] here is nothing but a great dream. Of course, the fools believe that they are already awake-what foolishness! Confucius and you, both of you, are dreams; and I, who tell you this, am also a dream.
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If we look on heaven and earth as a single crucible, and on the creator as the founder, would there be any place I could not go? When it is time, I will fall asleep, and when the right time comes, I will wake up again.
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Those who realize their folly are not true fools.
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When I look at what the world does and where people nowadays believe they can find happiness, I am not sure that that is true happiness. The happiness of these ordinary people seems to consist in slavishly imitating the majority, as if this were their only choice. And yet they all believe they are happy. I cannot decide whether that is happiness or not. Is there such a thing as happiness?
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True men ... are strong willed, have dignity in their demeanor, serenity in their expression. They are cool like autumn, warm like spring. Their passions arise like the four seasons, in harmony with the ten thousand creatures, and no one knows their limits.
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That knowledge which stops at what it does not know, is the highest knowledge.
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You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog,-the creature of a narrower sphere. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect,-the creature of a season.
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Perfect happiness is the absence of happiness; perfect glory is the absence of glory.
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A dog is not considered good because of his barking, and a man is not considered clever because of his ability to talk.
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Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy
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Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.
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