Robert M. Pirsig
Robert M. Pirsig
Robert Maynard Pirsigis an American writer and philosopher, and the author of the philosophical novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Valuesand Lila: An Inquiry into Morals...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth6 September 1928
CountryUnited States of America
Robert M. Pirsig quotes about
reflection serenity mind
Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.
achieve art inner mental motorcycle peace primarily study
The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon.
life wisdom future
To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
struggle simple oxygen
Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen struggle for billions of years to organize themselves into a professor of chemistry? What's the motive?
goes knocks puzzling truth
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.
independence individual return
We do need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance, and old-fashioned gumption. We really do.
future mountain sides sustain
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
tops
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
head improve outward work
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.
authors everybody famous
I did not want to write one of those sequels that famous first-book authors get into where everybody says, 'Oh yeah.'
people until
Up until my first book was published, I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say: 'No, I didn't screw up.'
buddha circuits computer cycle gears resides
The Buddha resides as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain.
produces
It's the dualistic ways of looking at things that produces the evil.
people
People are all at sixes and sevens with each other. They're always quarreling. They never somehow resolve anything.