Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Robert M. Pirsig

Quote by Robert M. Pirsig

“Quality is better seen up at the timberline than here obscured by smoky windows and oceans of words, and he sees that what he is talking about can never really be accepted here because to see it one has to be free of social authority and this is an institution of social authority. Quality for sheep is what the shepherd says. And if you take a sheep and put it up at the timberline at night when the wind is roaring, that sheep will be panicked half to death and will call and call until the shepherd comes, or comes the wolf.”

Quote by Robert M. Pirsig

Create image

Author

Robert M. Pirsig
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

You May Also Like

“A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books appear almost accidentally, like a sudden surge in the stock market. There are books of high quality that are a part of the culture, but that is not the same. They are a part of it. They aren't carrying it anywhere. They may talk about insanity sympathetically, for example, because that's the standard cultural attitude. But they don't carry any suggestion that insanity might be something other than sickness or degeneracy.”

ShouldWritingMayBookMightCultureAttitudeQualityExampleBearsStandardsIndependenceInsanitySicknessSuggestionsHigh QualityMules
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
Create image

“Therefore, be islands unto yourselves. Be your own refuge. Have recourse to none else for refuge. Hold fast to the Dharma as a refuge. Resort to no other refuge. Whosoever, either now or after I am gone, shall be islands unto themselves, shall seek no eternal refuge, it is they, among my disciples who shall reach the very topmost height! But they must be keen to progress.”

GoneProgressEternalIndependenceHeightIslandsRefugeDiscipleResortsDharmaRecourseHold Fast
Author:Gautama Buddha
Create image

“The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.”

HumansWellsMaySelfReasonFightingBeliefReligiousHuman BeingsAnimalResultsViewsAwarenessBehaviorImportanceIndependenceAssumingSpeciesGuidesKingdomsCharacteristicsDestructiveDelusionNo ReasonConformityTerritoryTraitsWarfareStubbornExtinctionSelf DestructiveConformistAnimal Kingdom
Book:The Lost World
Create image

“There may or may not be a Supreme Ruler of the universe-but we are certain that man exists, and we believe that freedom is the condition of progress; that it is the sunshine of the mental and moral world, and that without it man will go back to the den of savagery, and wll become the fit associate of wild and ferocious beasts.”

MenWorldBelieveMayCertainUniverseMoralProgressConditionsFitIndependenceSupremeBeastSunshineRulersAssociatesSavageryDens
Book:Miscellany
Create image