Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
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.
The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers - because it lives with those who know how to speak.
Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.
The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.
Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.
The true man of the past waited upon Heaven when dealing with people and did not wait upon people when dealing with Heaven.
Transmit the established facts; do not transmit words of exaggeration. If you do that, you will probably come out all right.
Do not let the artificial obliterate the natural; do not let will obliterate destiny; do not let virtue be sacrificed to fame.
Running around accusing others is not as good as laughing. And enjoying a good laugh is not as good as going along with things.
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.
To have attained to the human form is a source of joy... What an incomparable bliss it is to undergo these countless transitions.
True depth of understanding is wide and steady, Shallow understanding is lazy and wandering, Words of wisdom are precise and clear
Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point.
Your mind must become one, do not try to understand with your ears but with your heart. Indeed, not with your heart but with your soul.
The whole world is incapable of judging either right or wrong. but it is certain that actionless action can judge both right and wrong.
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?
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.
There is danger for the eye in seeing too clearly, danger for the ear in hearing too sharply and danger to the heart from caring too greatly.
And how do I know that the hate of death is not like a man who has lost his home when young and does not know where his home is to return to?
Only fools imagine they are already awake. How clearly they understand everything! How easily they distinguish this deception from that reality!
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.
Men do not mirror themselves in running water - they mirror themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things.
By ethical argument and moral principle the greatest crimes are eventually shown to have been necessary, and, in fact, a signal benefit to mankind.
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.
Can a man cling to the positive without any negative in contrast to which it is seen to be positive? If he claims to do so he is a rouge or a madman.
Tao is beyond words and beyond things. It is not expressed either in word or in silence. Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended.
Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature.
Good fortune is as light as a feather, but nobody knows how to pick it up. Misfortune is as heavy as earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of it's way.
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.
All men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so that I can have a word with him?
People value that part of knowledge which is known. They do not know how to avail themselves of the Unknown in order to reach knowledge. Is this not misguided?
The sage embraces things. Ordinary men discriminate amongst them and parade their discriminations before others. So I say; those who discriminate, fail to see.
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.
Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one. . . . When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course.
If you wish to care for your body, first of all take care of material things, though even when you have all the things you want, the body can still be uncared for
The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.
Human life is limited, but knowledge is limitless. To drive the limited in pursuit of the limitless is fatal; and to presume that one really knows is fatal indeed!
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.
Easy is right. Begin right and you are easy. Continue easy and you are right. The right way to go easy is to forget the right way, and forget that the going is easy.
The eye is a menace to clear sight, the ear is a menace to subtle hearing, the mind is a menace to wisdom, every organ of the senses is a menace to its own capacity.
The Tao has no place for pettiness, and nor has Virtue. Pettiness is dangerous to Virtue; pettiness is dangerous to the Tao. It is said, rectify yourself and be done.
How do I know that loving life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death I am not like a man who, having left home in his youth, has forgotten the way back?
Look at this window: it is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light.
Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chuang Tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tzu.
I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
When an archer shoots for enjoyment, he has all his skill; when he shoots for a brass buckle, he gets nervous; when he shoots for a prize of gold, he begins to see two targets.
When I talk about having good hearing, I don't mean just listening, but listening to yourself. When I talk about good eyesight, I don't mean just looking, but looking at yourself.
There are no greater adversaries than yin and yang, because nothing in Heaven or on Earth escapes them. But it is not yin and yang that do this, it is your heart that makes it so.
To be constant is to be useful. To be useful is to realize one's true nature. Realization of one's true nature is happiness. When one reaches happiness, one is close to perfection.
Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.