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Robert M. Pirsig

Robert M. Pirsig Quotes

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Famous Robert M. Pirsig Quotes

“Any philosophic explanation of Quality is going to be both false and true precisely because it is a philosophic explanation. The process of philosophic explanation is an analytic process, a process of breaking something down into subjects and predicates. What I mean (and everybody else means) by the word 'quality' cannot be broken down into subjects and predicates. This is not because Quality is so mysterious but because Quality is so simple, immediate and direct.”

MeanProcessSimpleQualitySubjectsBrokenDirectMysteriousExplanationAnalyticsPhilosophicBroken DownZen Motorcycle Maintenance
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”

MovingUsedRealizingGoneCarTvsSceneWindowContactCyclesOverwhelmingPassiveObserversZen Motorcycle Maintenance
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“I think this fear of insanity is comparable to the fear people once had of falling off the edge of the world. Or the fear of heretics...What's happening is that each year our old flat earth of conventional reason becomes less and less adequate to handle the experiences we have and this is creating wide-spread feelings of topsy-turviness. As a result we're getting more and more people in irrational areas of thought...occultism, mysticism, drug changes and the like...because they feel an inadequacy in classical reason to handle what they know are real experiences.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldFeelsYearsRealReasonFeelingsEarthFallResultsDrugCreatingHappeningsAreasEdgesSpreadWideHandleInsanityMysticismFlatsConventionalIrrationalRationalityAdequateHereticInadequacyFalling OffZen Motorcycle MaintenanceEdge Of The World
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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“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.”

IfsWorldFirstsHeartImportantEndsHandsPoliticalValuesIndividualSocialQualityProductsProgramStructureWork OutHead And HeartZen Motorcycle MaintenanceSocial Values
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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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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