Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, fluttering happily about, unaware he was Zhou. Suddenly he awoke, and there he was, unmistakably Zhou. He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly was dreaming it was Zhou.

My life has a limit, but knowledge has none. To pursue the limitless with the limited is perilous.

In the northern darkness there is a fish called Kun. The Kun is so vast one cannot tell how many thousands of li it spans. It transforms into a bird called Peng. The back of the Peng is so vast one cannot tell how many thousands of li it spans.

Cook Ding was carving an ox for Lord Wenhui. His hand touched, his shoulder leaned, his foot stepped, his knee pressed — and with every swish and whistle the cleaver moved in perfect rhythm.

Heaven and earth were born together with me, and the ten thousand things are one with me.

For thinking and Being are the same.

-- Parmenides

You must learn all things: both the steadfast heart of well-rounded Truth and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true trust.

-- Parmenides

Imagine prisoners chained underground since childhood, seeing only shadows on a wall and taking them for reality.

-- Plato

I know that I know nothing.

-- Socrates

Color exists by convention, sweet by convention, bitter by convention; in reality there are only atoms and void.

-- Democritus

Those who understand that things arise dependently know them to be empty.

-- Nagarjuna