Robert M. Pirsig Quotes
An American writer and philosopher, and author of the philosophical novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974).
(1928 - )
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Even in the presence of others he was completely alone.
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It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.
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Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a thirty thousand page menu, and no food.
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Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you're no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a means to an end, but a unique event in itself.
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One geometry cannot be more true than another; it can only be more convenient. Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.
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Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.
[Quality]
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The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
[Self Reliance]
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The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.
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The solutions all are simple - after you have arrived at them. But they're simple only when you know already what they are.
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The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I'm looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.
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To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
[Success]
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Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20 - 20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.
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We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people's lives.
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When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion.
[Religion]
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