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Robert M. Pirsig

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“Mental patterns do not originate out of inorganic nature. They originate out of society, which originates out of inorganic nature. And, as anthropologists know so well, what a mind thinks is as dominated by biological patterns as social patterns are dominated by biological patterns and as biological patterns are dominated by inorganic patterns. There is no direct scientific connection between mind and matter. As the atomic scientist, Niels Bohr, said, "We are suspended in language." Our intellectual description of nature is always culturally derived.”

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Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“The TV scientist who mutters sadly, "The experiment is a failure; we have failed to achieve what we had hoped for," is suffering mainly from a bad script writer. An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results. An experiment is a failure only when it also fails adequately to test the hypothesis in question, when the data it produces don't prove anything one way or another.”

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“…the doctrinal differences between Hinduism and Buddhism and Taoism are not anywhere near as important as doctrinal differences among Christianity and Islam and Judaism. Holy wars are not fought over them because verbalized statements about reality are never presumed to be reality itself.”

ImportantWarRealityDifferencesChristianityBuddhismHolyIslamStatementsTaoismHinduismJudaismChristianity And IslamZen Motorcycle MaintenanceHoly WarHinduism And Buddhism
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“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.”

YearsKindPersonsChanceResultsWonderGoneSorryEndlessDay To DayMonotonyShallownessZen Motorcycle Maintenance
Book:Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
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“This inner peace of mind occurs on three levels of understanding. Physical quietness seems the easiest to achieve, although there are levels and levels of this too, as attested by the ability of Hindu mystics to live buried alive for many days. Mental quietness, in which one has no wandering thoughts at all, seems more difficult, but can be achieved. But value quietness, in which one has no wandering desires at all but simply performs the acts of his life without desire, that seems the hardest.”

MindSeemsDesireValuesThreeDifficultUnderstandingAbilityLevelsAliveAchieveInner PeaceHardestWanderPeace Of MindBuriedQuietnessWandering Thoughts
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“I've wondered why it took us so long to catch on. We saw it, and yet we didn't see it. Or rather we were trained not to see it. Conned perhaps into thinking that the real action was metropolitan and all this was just boring hinterland. It was 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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Book:Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
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“It's normal at this point for the fear-anger syndrome to take over and make you want to hammer on that side plate with a chisel, to pound it off with a sledge if necessary. You think about it, and the more you think about it the more you're inclined to take the whole machine to a high bridge and drop it off. It's just outrageous that a tiny little slot of a screw can defeat you so totally.”

IfsThinkingWantLittlesWholeSidesNormalMachinesDefeatTinyBridgesPoundsPlatesScrewsHammersOutrageousSyndromesChisels
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“It was the ghost of rationality itself ... This is the ghost of normal everyday assumptions which declares that the ultimate purpose of life, which is to keep alive, is impossible, but that this is the ultimate purpose of life anyway, so that great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why. One lives longer in order that he may live longer. There is no other purpose. That is what the ghost says.”

PeopleMindMayPurposeOrderAsksStruggleAliveImpossibleDiseaseNormalUltimateEverydayGhostCuresAssumptionPurpose Of LifeRationalityMadmenGreat Minds
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality. The tree that you are aware of intellectually, because of that small time lag, is always in the past and therefore is always unreal. Any intellectually conceived object is always in the past and therefore unreal. Reality is always the moment of vision before the intellectualization takes place. There is no other reality.”

MomentsRealityPastMemoriesVisionPlansTreeObjectsRealismOur MemoriesUnrealLag
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“Schools teach you to imitate. If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. Here, in college, it was more sophisticated, of course; you were supposed to imitate the teacher in such a way as to convince the teacher you were not imitating, but taking the essence of the instruction and going ahead with it on your own. That got you A's. Originality on the other hand could get you anything -- from A to F. The whole grading system cautioned against it.”

IfsWayWantWholeHandsSchoolCoursesEducationTeachTeacherCollegeEssenceIntelligenceGradesConvinceInstructionOriginalitySophisticatedImitatingBad Grades
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“You are never dedicated to do something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”

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Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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