Facebook share   Tweet This   Email this

I do not know whether I was then
by Zhuangzi

I do not know whether I was then
a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now
a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
- Zhuangzi

Related topics: Zen Wisdom

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.
- Zhuangzi

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
- Zhuangzi

Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth.
- Zhuangzi

Please sign-up for my Free Daily Inspirational Quotes and Insights Email on the form below.

Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who realize their folly are not true fools.
- Zhuangzi

The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not bothering.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot

Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus

Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
- Edmund Hillary

One does not discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
- Andre Gide

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb

We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past,
but by the love we're not extending in the present.
- Marianne Williamson

A ship in harbor is safe -
but that is not what ships are for.
- John A. Shedd

You do not need anyone's permission to be your true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu

Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.
- Erich Segal

A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

Life is not supposed to be fair.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am not afraid of storms
for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

To the people who love you,
you are beautiful already.
This is not because they're
blind to your shortcomings
but because they so clearly see your soul.
- Victoria Moran

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson

When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.
- Dale Carnegie

Am I not destroying my enemies
when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln

The ache for home lives in all of us,
the safe place where we can
go as we are and not be questioned.
- Maya Angelou

You will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger.
- The Buddha

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May Alcott

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde

Sometimes we need the fog to remind ourselves
that all of life is not black and white.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am not a slave to my thoughts or emotions.
- Richard Carlson

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- The Buddha

The beauty does not live out there;
the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.
- Anne Bradstreet

Do not let Sunday be taken from you.
If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
- Albert Schweitzer

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen

I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Let parents bequeath to their children
not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
- Plato

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie

Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth.
Breathe deep, sing loud and sweet,
"I am me, I am unique, I am magnificent."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The possession of knowledge does not
kill the sense of wonder and mystery.
There is always more mystery.
- Anais Nin

If a man does not know what port he is steering for,
no wind is favorable to him.
- Seneca

Go within every day and find the inner strength
so that the world will not blow your candle out.
- Katherine Dunham

Do not anticipate trouble,
or worry about what may never happen.
Keep in the sunlight.
- Benjamin Franklin

You got to be careful if you
don't know where you're going,
because you might not get there.
- Yogi Berra

Men are disturbed not by things,
but by the view which they take of them.
- Epictetus

That which you hate to be done to you,
do not do to another.
- Ancient Egyptian Proverb

The key to forgiveness is to forgive from the heart -
not from the mind.
- Sheri Rosenthal

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Does thou love life? Then do not squander time;
for that's the stuff life is made of.
- Benjamin Franklin

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- Aldous Huxley

It's not what you take when
you leave this world behind you.
It's what you leave behind you when you go.
- Randy Travis

People seem not to see that
their opinion of the world
is also a confession of character.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Examine what is said, not him who speaks.
- Arabian Proverb

Love possesses not
nor would it be possessed.
- Khalil Gibran

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
- John Morley

Thank you for visiting: I do not know whether I was then by Zhuangzi.

Please sign up on the form below to receive my Free Daily Inspiration - Daily Quotes email.

May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie