Chapter 23, Part 10B - Chuang Tzu

Out of the murk, things come to life. With cunning you declare, "We must analyze this!" You try putting your analysis in words, though it is not something to be put into words. You cannot, however, attain understanding.

At the winter sacrifice, you can point to the tripe or the hoof of the sacrificial ox, which can be considered separate things, and yet in a sense cannot be considered separate. A man who goes to look at a house will walk all around the chambers and ancestral shrines, but he will also go to inspect the privies. And so for this reason you launch into your analysis.

Let me try describing this analysis of yours. It takes life as its basis and knowledge as its teacher, and from there proceeds to assign "right" and "wrong." So in the end we have "names" and "realities," and accordingly each man considers himself to be their arbiter. In his efforts to make other men appreciate his devotion to duty, for example, he will go so far as to accept death as his reward for devotion.

To such men, he who is useful is considered wise, he who is of no use is considered stupid. He who is successful wins renown; he who runs into trouble is heaped with shame. Analyzers - that is what the men of today are! They are like the cicada and the little dove, who agreed because they were two of a kind.
~ Burton Watson translation via Terebess Asia Online ~

Go here to read the introductory post to the chapters of the Book of Chuang Tzu.