The principle of Yin and Yang is that everything exists as related and contradictory opposites. For example Light and Dark need each other to exist and are the opposites. Old and New, and Dark and Light are two other common examples.
Yin and Yang are fundamental concepts in Chinese culture and the notion has impacted philosophers for literally centuries. It became popular with the work of the Chinese school of Yinyang which studied cosmology and philosophy in the 3rd Century BCE.
The eastern world has always understood that the intermingling of light and dark is the primary force of life. The Tao symbol expresses the balance between opposites by which the universe is controlled. In short, Yin and Yang is a complex duality that is a fun and mentally interesting way to view the world.
Our Favorite Yin Yang Quotes
We can learn a lot from these 40 yin and yang quotes that express this sacred dance of existence.
- “The reason as to why we are attracted to our opposites is because they are our salvation from the burden of being ourselves.” Kamand Kojouri
- “Yin and Yang are the two opposites which control the universe and thus the human body.” George Lucas
- “The motion of yin and yang generates all things in nature.” Meh Jiuzhang and Guo Lei
- “Yin and Yang in themselves are of course opposites, so we use Yin and Yang to generalise opposing elements such as up and down, left and right, day and night, water and fire, male and female, inside and outside. But Yin and Yang do not exist in separated and independent forms. Yin and Yang are two faces of a whole, or, it may be said, Yin and Yang join together and combine into a whole.” Jinghan He
- “If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.” Anthon St. Maarten
- “In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil,” the man said. “Good and evil are not fixed, stable entities but are continually trading places. A good may be transformed into an evil in the next second. And vice versa. Such was the way of the world that Dostoevksy depicted in The Brothers Karamazov. The most important thing is to maintain the balance between the constantly moving good and evil. If you lean too much in either direction, it becomes difficult to maintain actual morals. Indeed, balance itself is the good. ” Haruki Murakami
- “Often, the truly great and valuable lessons we learn in life are learned through pain. That’s why they call it “growing pains.” It’s all about yin and yang. And that’s not something you order off column A at your local Chinese restaurant.” Fran Drescher
- “Let us give thanks for our shadows for they are there in the first place because of the presence of light.” Kamand Kojouri
- “There’s eternal opposition between yin and yang. No third party at all, but treason occurs sometimes.” Toba Beta
- “You spoke your words as though you denied the very existence of the shadows or of evil. Think, now: where would your good be if there were no evil and what would the world look like without shadow? Mikhail Bulgakov
- “Everywhere, even in the blackest abyss, he believed one might witness the divine. The shadows and contrast―absence itself―as important as the light and marble, for one cannot exist without the other.” Eowyn Ivey
- “Yin and Yang are one vital force — the primordial aura.” Yangming Wang
- “If you want to live a balanced life, you must admit human nature is yin and yang, day and night, love and hate, you can’t reject it. It’s all about embracing it, and celebrating the fact that we are weak, and out of that emerges great power.” Adam Darski
- “The essence of yin and yang centers on the tension between two halves of a whole that are both divided and connected.” Angellia Moore
- “My soul has been severed in two, like Yin and Yang, these parts interlace. Only, both are beasts.” Ilse V. Rensburg
- “Yin-Yang is more then just a concept of opposites, it is the beginning of all things, an energy, a wholeness.” Gary Erickson
- “Pain and pleasure are the yin and yang of love.” J. Earp”The motion of yin/yang is a circular one — more a spiraling one — ever changing between one phase and the other. As yin fulfills itself, inherent within it are the seeds of yang, and visa versa.” Rodney L. Taylor
- “But what if I should discover that the least among them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yea the very fiend himself – that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved – what then? Then, as a rule, the whole truth of Christianity is reversed: there is no more talk of love and long-suffering; we say to the brother within us, “Raca,” and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide him from the world; we deny ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves, and had it been God himself who drew near to us in this despicable form, we should have denied him a thousand times before a single cock had crowed.” C. G. Jung
- “Yin and yang, male and female, strong and weak, rigid and tender, heaven and earth, light and darkness, thunder and lightning, cold and warmth, good and evil…the interplay of opposite principles constitutes the universe.” Confucius
- “Your greatest attribute, that which allows you to accomplish most in life and the most treasured aspect of your being will often be the source of your greatest suffering.” Chris Matakas
- “We are not meant to be perfect, we are meant to be whole.” Jane Fonda
- “In the black, there is some white; in the wrong, there is some right; in the dark, there is some light; in the blind there is some sight.” Abhinyana
- “The heart of a human being is no different from the soul of heaven and earth. In your practice always keep in your thoughts the interaction of heaven and earth, water and fire, yin and yang.” Morihei Ueshiba
- “Nature is about balance. All the world comes in pairs – yin and yang, right and wrong, men and women; what’s pleasure without pain?” Angelina Jolie
- “Yin and Yang are the source of power and the beginning of everything in creation.” Huang-Ti
- “We are only different because there exists something to be different from, and it is this difference that bonds us.” Chris Matakas
- “It is yin and yang. Light is the left hand of darkness … how did it go? Light, dark. Fear, courage. Cold, warmth. Female, male. It is yourself … both and one. A shadow on snow.” Ursula K. Le Guin
- “A Martial Artist may become A professional fighter but not every Fighter is capable of becoming A martial artist. Martial Arts are about restoration of physical and spiritual balance and fluidity; they are about observing restraints and ‘setting example”. Every practice session is a reminder of the play of opposites (yin and yang), . . . .” Soke Behzad Ahmadi & Denise Itchikawa
- “This is a concept that western culture has forgotten: everything is one! The idea of dichotomy is deeply wrong and nothing is better than a great symbol of China, the Tao, the wheel of yin and yang that represents life. The universe is the harmony of opposites, because there is no water without fire, there is no female with no male, there is no night without day, there is no sun without the moon … there is no good without evil! This symbol is perfect since the white and black are embracing each other; inside the white there is a black point and inside the black there is a white point.” Tiziano Terzani
- “Yin and Yang are not oppositional but rather complementary forces. Yin and Yang are in no more conflict than the light of day is fighting the dark of night or the warmth of summer is battling with the cold of winter.” Brendan Kelly
- “So my message is in whichever realm, be it going into space or going into the deep sea, you have to balance the yin and yang of caution and boldness, risk aversion and risk taking, fear and fearlessness. No great accomplishment takes place, whether it be a movie or a deep ocean expedition, or a space mission, without a kind of dynamic equipoise between the two. Luck is not a factor. Hope is not a strategy. Fear is not an option.” James Cameron
- “The physical universe was created when Oneness became duality, and we can see this duality, this yin and yang, everywhere in the universe, in every atom, every action, and in every function of the human body. Yin and yang are manifest everywhere, except at the very center of being, the perfect point of balance, at that infinite moment where the future becomes the past.” Robert Tisserand
- “The world is, was, will always be filled with good and evil, because good and evil is the yin and yang of the human condition.” Philip Zimbardo
- “Freedom without discipline is foolish, discipline without freedom is insanity.” Ilona Mialik
- “Reality, the ancient Chinese concluded, is full of polarities such as day and night, bitter and sweet, winter and summer, male and female. They called this natural harmony of opposites yin and yang. That is why everything, including meals (we notice this in Chinese cooking) should be in conformity with this bipolarity, balancing sour and sweet, peppery and bland. This reality of which we are born, with its yin and yang, is a reality in which everything and everybody are made of the same material. They call this material ch’i. Ch’i is the basic reality of all that is, including the rocks, the lilies, and us!” Daniel C. MacGuire
- “The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to yin and yang. Yin and yang give birth to all things… The complete whole is the complete whole. So also is any part the complete whole… But forget about understanding and harmonizing and making all things one. The universe is already a harmonious oneness; just realize it.” Laozi
- “Will and I are yin and yang. He’s all sky, vast and bright and soaring, and I’m all earth. I’m here to ground him, and he’s here to help me fly.” Jada Pinkett Smith
- “Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.” Dr. Seuss
- “Countless words count less than the silent balance between yin and yang” Laozi
- Rudyard Kipling once wrote: “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”
Yin and Yang Video – The Hidden Meanings
Oh this video is short but goes deep! If you want to start to explore some of the hidden meanings of yin and yang, be sure to check this out!
Use these Yin Yang Quotes to improve your mental balance this week
East and West have met, and we are finding there is much we can learn from eastern wisdom. The yin and yang of life have always been among us. Maybe we can learn to accept that in each of us is light and dark, good and evil.
These quotes can help us find peace and balance between these forces in and around us all.
I’m Alice Judy and AnQuotes is a fun hobby for me. We know that everyone loves a great quote and our mission here is simple – to be the best and most interesting quote site in the world! If you have quotes you would like us to cover, please contact us.
