Zhuangzi Quotes

Zhuang Zhou (庄周, 4th century BCE), known as Zhuangzi (庄子, 'Master Zhuang'), was a Chinese philosopher from the state of Song during the Warring States period. He is the author of the Zhuangzi, a foundational Taoist text of 33 chapters famous for its parables, humor, and radical skepticism. His key stories include the butterfly dream, Cook Ding carving an ox, the happy fish debate, and the useless tree. His philosophy centers on free and easy wandering (xiaoyao you, 逍遥游), the equality of things (qiwu, 齐物), and spontaneous transformation (ziran, 自然).

"Between Useful and Useless"

No position stays safe for long
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Dao in the Ants"

What is highest is not elsewhere
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Drumming the Bowl"

Grief and transformation are not enemies
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Fasting of the Mind"

Emptiness is not absence
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Fish in the Drying Spring"

Better to forget one another in rivers and lakes
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Great Speech Is Flavorless"

The truest words do not try to win
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Letting the World Be"

Governing is not the same as allowing
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"One Peck, One Drink"

The marsh is better than the cage
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Robber Zhi's Accusation"

Virtue talk can serve appetite and power
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Shadow and Penumbra"

Even what follows has something it follows
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Sitting and Forgetting"

The self falls away one layer at a time
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Speaking Beyond the Schools"

A voice can refuse the frame it surveys
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Bird That Was a Fish"

Scale changes everything
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Blade Without an Edge"

Skill dissolves into something deeper
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Cicada Catcher"

When attention no longer leaks away
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Cicada’s Laughter"

Every world feels complete from the inside
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Emperor Without Holes"

Kindness can kill what it tries to complete
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Extra Finger"

Nature does not count
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Fish Trap"

Words are for crossing, not for keeping
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Genuine Person"

True knowing begins with true being
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Gourd Too Large to Use"

Uselessness is a failure of imagination
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Great Thief"

The better the lock, the more worth stealing
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Joy of Fish"

Knowing is not only possession of proof
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Madman at the Gate"

Some warnings only fools deliver
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Man Who Lost a Foot"

What you see depends on what you look for
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Man Without Feelings"

What Zhuangzi meant was not what Huizi heard
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Mirror Mind"

Reflect everything. Hold nothing.
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Old Fisherman"

Without inward truth, expression goes hollow
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Piping of Heaven"

Who blows through the ten thousand hollows?
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Skull's Refusal"

What if death is release, not theft?
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Swimmer at the Gorge"

What terrifies others can become native ground
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Tamer's Art"

What is called improvement is often damage
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Tree That Was Good for Nothing"

Survival is its own kind of use
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"The Well and the Sea"

Your world is not the world
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Three in the Morning"

Same acorns, different story
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

"Who Dreams Whom?"

The self is a passing shape
— Zhuangzi Read on wisdom card →

Further Reading