Q0290

“Better to forget one another in the rivers and lakes than to…” — Zhuangzi (Zhuangzi, Da Zongshi)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Zhuangzi, Da Zongshi. Theme: relation.

English

Better to forget one another in the rivers and lakes than to moisten one another with foam when stranded.
Thinker Zhuangzi
School Daoism
Source Zhuangzi, Da Zongshi
Theme Relation
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Zhuangzi, Da Zongshi and files it under Daoism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou, c. 369–c.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Martin Buber and G. W. This passage enters that discussion through relation, nature.

Concepts in this quote

Relation
Relation appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat relation as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Nature
Philosophy quotes about nature ask what the cosmos is, how humans belong in it, and whether “natural” can guide ethics or politics.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Zhuangzi. (n.d.). Better to forget one another in the rivers and lakes than to moisten one another with foam when stranded. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0290

MLA: Zhuangzi. “Better to forget one another in the rivers….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0290.

Chicago: Zhuangzi. “Better to forget one another in the rivers….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0290.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Better to forget one another in the rivers…”?

The passage is attributed to Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi, Da Zongshi. The archive attributes this English wording to Zhuangzi, Da Zongshi and files it under Daoism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Zhuangzi mean by relation?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Martin Buber and G. W. This passage enters that discussion through relation, nature.

Same thinker

More from Zhuangzi

  1. Therefore it is said: The consummate person has no self; the spiritual person has no merit; the sage has no name.
  2. My life has a limit, but knowledge has none. To pursue the limitless with the limited is perilous!
  3. When the springs dry up and fish are stranded together on land, they moisten one another with dampness and wet one another with foam — but better to forget one another in the rivers and lakes.
  4. Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly…He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly was dreaming it was Zhou.
  5. Relying on the heavenly pattern, I strike into the large gaps, guide through the large openings, and follow what is inherently so.

All quotations by Zhuangzi

Same theme

More on relation

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the relation theme