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Quote by Robert M. Pirsig

“What we think of as reality is a continuous synthesis of elements from a fixed hierarchy of a priori concepts and the ever changing data of the senses.”

Quote by Robert M. Pirsig

Author

Robert M. Pirsig

Robert M. Pirsig was an American writer best known for his philosophical novel 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.' This work combines philosophical thinking with travel adventure, exploring the concepts of quality, value, and the meaning of life. more

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“If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government.”

Ifs Government Left Revolution Succeed Patterns Repeats Systematic Zen Motorcycle Maintenance

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“The way to solve the conflict between human values and technology needs is not to run away from technology. That's impossible. The way to resolve the conflict is to break down the barriers of dualistic thought that prevent a real understanding of what technology is--not an exploitation of nature, but a fusion of nature and the human spirit into a new kind of creation that transcends both.”

“The real evil isn't the objects of technology but the tendency of technology to isolate people into lonely attitudes of objectivity. It's the objectivity, the dualistic way of looking at things underlying technology, that produces the evil.”

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“Quality tends to fan out like waves.”

Quality Fans Wave Zen Motorcycle Maintenance

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“Any person of any philosophic persuasion who sits on a hot stove will verify without any intellectual argument whatsoever that he is in an undeniably low-quality situation: that the value of his predicament is negative. This low quality is not just a vague, woolly-headed, crypto-religious, metaphysical abstraction. It is an experience. It is not a judgment about an experience. It is not a description of experience. The value itself is an experience. As such it is completely predictable. It is verifiable by anyone who cares to do so.”

“Squareness is such a uniquely intellectual disease.”

Disease Intellectual

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“Familiarity can blind too.”

Blind Familiarity

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“I really don't mind dying because I figure I haven't wasted this life. 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.”

People Mind Firsts Book Dying Havens Figures This Life Screws Screwed Up Screw Ups

Author:Robert M. Pirsig

“The logic of science was infallible, and if the scientists were sometimes mistaken, this was assumed to be only from their mistaking its rules.”

Ifs Sometimes Logic Scientist Mistaken Infallible

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“In the temple of science are many mansions ... and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither.”

Various Motive Temples Mansions Zen Motorcycle Maintenance

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