Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Zhuangzi

By Chuang Tzu

Themes

Themes: Crazy Wisdom

Quotes from Zhuangzi

“Abandon your plan… respond to the demands of inner truth… and war will end by itself!”

Chapters: 30. No War

Themes: Truth War

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“Birth and death, profit and loss, success and failure, health and sickness – the Master maintains his balance... he lets things go through their changes and stays focused on what is real.”

Chapters:

Themes: Middle Way Health

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“Destruction of Tao and character in order to strive for humanity and justice—this is the error of the sages.”

Chapters:

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“Fame destroys virtue and easily becomes an evil weapon, only something to beat people down with—not anything that can bring true success.”

Chapters:

Themes: Fame Success

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“How can speech be so obscured that there should be a distinction of right and wrong? Can we, or can we not, distinguish it from the chirping of young birds?”

Chapters:

Themes: Moral Freedom

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“Learn how to govern your own mind and the universe will take care of itself.”

Chapters:

Themes: Mind

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“Life and death are nothing to the true people of Tao, nothing can touch them.”

Chapters: 7. Lose Yourself, Gain Your Soul

Themes: Death and Dying

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“Like a person whose senses function properly each in its own field but do not cooperate with one another, philosophers emphasize one particular aspect and hold on to it... philosophy is thus cut up and falls apart.”

Chapters:

Themes: Philosophy

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“Like small hills that pile up and become a mountain, like streams that flow into one another and become a great river; the good leader unites all and makes a unified effort and a unified nation possible”

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“Like water that becomes clear when left alone, the wise make no plans and casually adjust themselves to events.”

Chapters:

Themes: Simplicity

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“Nowadays I see with my whole being not with my eyes. I sense the natural lines, and my knife slides through by itself… I stand there and let the joy of the work fill me.”

Chapters: 28. Turning Back

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“People usually look at things from their personal point of view and therefore miss the truth.”

Chapters:

Themes: Truth Egolessness

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“Perfect kindness does not concern itself with kindness... Kindness that has fixed objects loses its integrity.”

Chapters:

Themes: Kindness

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“Poetry serves to communicate the hearts and hopes of men.”

Chapters:

Themes: Hope Poetry

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“Prisoners to the world of objects, they are pressed down and crushed by fashion, the market, events, public opinion… never do they recover their right mind.”

Chapters: 11. Appreciating Emptiness

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“Reality is ever elusive and formless, all life is constant change.”

Chapters:

Themes: Reality Change

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“That which is added to and does not increase, is taken away from and does not decrease... fathomless like the sea, inexhaustible; it sustains and gives life to all creation.”

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“The master uses his skill to harmonize with both sides which makes all things equal. This is called 'walking on two paths at once.'”

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“The one who thinks he does not know is profound, the one who thinks he knows is shallow.”

Chapters: 1. The Unnamed

Themes: Moral Freedom

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“The sage is full of anxiety and indecision in undertaking anything, and so he is always successful.”

Chapters:

Themes: Success Openness

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“The wise do not rejoice when they succeed or lament when they fail because they know that conditions aren’t constant”

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“The words of arguments are all relative. To reach the absolute, the truth, we have to harmonize opposites and follow their natural evolution.”

Chapters: 2. The Wordless Teachings

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“To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step.”

Chapters: 5. Christmas Trees

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“What he saw as One was One, and what he saw as not One was also One... better to forget both and lose oneself in the Tao.”

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“When springs dry up, fish find themselves in puddles spraying water on each other to keep each other alive. Better to be in a river or lake and oblivious to one another.”

Chapters: 18. The Sick Society

Themes: Inscrutable

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“Where would the gardener be if there were no more weeds?”

Chapters:

Themes: Gardening

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Quotes about Zhuangzi (1 quotes)

“After Lao Tzu, the greatest of the early Taoist philosophers. The work that bears his name contains some of the most imaginative examples of early Chinese writing and includes numerous quotes from the Tao Te Ching.”

Red Pine 1943 CE –
( Bill Porter)
Exceptional translator, cultural diplomat
from Lao-Tzu's Taoteching

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