Michael Smith

“Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly. A butterfly fluttering happily around— was he revealing what he himself meant to be? He knew nothing of Zhou. All at once awakening, there suddenly he was — Zhou. But he didn't know if he was Zhou having dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must surely be some distinction. This is known at the transformation of things.”
― Zhuangzi, Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters

“Forget about life, forget about worrying about right and wrong. Plunge into the unknown and the endless and find your place there!”
― Zhuangzi, The Book of Chuang Tzu

“If you can dispense with reputation, then you are free from care. Reputation is only a visitor, but reality is here to stay.”
― Liezi, Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

“When she had just died, I could not help being affected. Soon, however, I examined the matter from the very beginning. At the very beginning, she was not living, having no form, nor even substance. But somehow or other there was then her substance, then her form, and then her life. Now by a further change, she has died. The whole process is like the sequence of the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While she is thus lying in the great mansion of the universe, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of the natural laws. Therefore I stopped!”
― Zhuangzi