吾生也有涯

Wú shēng yě yǒu yá
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 my life has its limit
  2. 2 Zhuangzi's opening premise - human life is finite, but knowledge is infinite

Examples

" Wúshēngyěyǒuyá, érzhīyěwúyá ", Zhuāngzǐ zhè jù huà, xuéshùjiè zuì ài yǐnyòng.
'My life has a limit, but knowledge is limitless' - academia's favorite Zhuangzi quotation.
Wúshēngyěyǒuyá, suǒyǐ wǒ juédìng bùzài jiābān áoyè.
My life has a limit, so I've decided to stop pulling all-nighters at work.

Tips

history
Opening of 庄子·养生主: 吾生也有涯,而知也无涯。以有涯随无涯,殆已. Zhuangzi warns that chasing infinite knowledge with a finite life is dangerous, a Daoist argument for 养生 (nurturing life) over exhaustion.
usage
(wú) = classical 'I' (modern ). here is NOT 'also', it's the classical copula-like particle marking the subject ('as for my life...'). (yá) = 'shore / limit.'

Stroke Order

shēng
yǒu