Chuang Tzu's "Independence" - David Foster Wallace Course (Eng 67)

Chuang Tzu was one day fishing, when the Prince of Ch'u sent two high officials to interview him, saying that his Highness would be glad of Chuang Tzu's assistance in the administration of his government. The latter quietly fished on, and without looking round, replied, "I have heard that in the State of Ch'u there is a sacred tortoise, which has been dead three thousand years, and which the prince keeps packed up in a box on the altar in his ancestral shrine.  Now do you think that tortoise would rather be dead and have its remains thus honoured, or be alive and wagging its tail in the mud?"  The two officials answered that no doubt it would rather be alive and wagging its tail in the mud; whereupon Chuang Tzu cried out "Begone!  I too elect to remain wagging my tail in the mud."