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
encouraging wisdom hiking
The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
quality doe care
Care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristic of quality.
patterns looks where-you-are
You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge.
motorcycle steel bikers
That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel.
motivation humility self
Anxiety is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. It results from over-motivation- leading to errors that lead to an underestimation of one's self. Work out your anxieties on paper and read. This calms the mind.
hippie simple people
Cliches and stereotypes such as "beatnik" or "hippie" have been invented for the antitechnologists, the antisystem people, and will continue to be. But one does not convert individuals into mass people with the simple coining of a mass term.
flower thinking mountain
The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of the mountain, or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to demean oneself.
heart hands social-values
Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right. The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.
sorry years gone
We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.
perfect want painting
You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.
peace writing mind
My favorite piece of technical writing: Assembly of Japanese bicycle require great peace of mind.
running mountain speed
If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.
essence quality absence
Absence of Quality is the essence of squareness.
depression reflection men
When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he's insane, which is not to see him at all.