Robert M. Pirsig Quotes - Page 5

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

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Mind, Dying, Figures

  Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. November 18, 2006.

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• The pencil is mightier than the pen.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Pens, Pencils

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• One thing about pioneers that you don't hear mentioned is that they are invariably, by their nature, mess-makers. They go forging ahead, seeing only their noble, distant goal, and never notice any of the crud and debris they leave behind them.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Goal, Pioneers, Noble

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• The real University... has no specific location. It owns no property, pays no salaries, and receives no material dues... The real University is a state of mind. It is that great heritage of rational thought that has been brought down to us through the centuries.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Real, Mind, Salary

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• (What makes his world so hard to see clearly is not its strangeness but its usualness).Familiarity can blind you too.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  World, Blind, Strangeness

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• Quality tends to fan out like waves. The Quality job he didn't think anyone was going to see was seen, and the person who feels it is a little bit better because of it, and is likely to pass that feeling onto others, and in that way the Quality tends to keep going.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Jobs, Thinking, Feelings

  "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Book by Robert M. Pirsig, 1974.

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• 99 per cent of your life recognises things without definition, a baby recognises its mother's face without having it defined. It's just an arbitrary rule this rule of definition that Socrates set down.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Mother, Baby, Arbitrary

  Source: www.theguardian.com

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• Cultivate peace of mind which does not separate one's self from one's surroundings. When that is done successfully, then everything else follows naturally.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Self, Inner Peace, Mind

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• The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Shining, Mind, Looks

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• For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Science, Facts, Infinity

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• If you don't generalize you don't philosophize.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Ideas, Ifs

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• I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Thinking, Everyday, Forget

  "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Book by Robert M. Pirsig, 1974.

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• ... the laws of physics and of logic ... the number system ... the principle of algebraic substitution. These are ghosts. We just believe in them so thoroughly they seem real.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Real, Believe, Law

  Robert M. Pirsig (2009). “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values”, p.41, Harper Collins

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• Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Past, Faces, Forget

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• Substance is a subspecies of value. When you reverse the containment process and define substance in terms of value the mystery disappears: substance is a "stable pattern of inorganic values." The problem then disappears. The world of objects and the world of values is unified.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Substance, World, Patterns

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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.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Religious, Intellectual, Quality

  "Lila : An Inquiry Into Morals". Book by Robert M. Pirsig, 1991.

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• The more you read, the more you calm down.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Reading, Calm, Calm Down

  "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Book by Robert M. Pirsig, 1974.

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• When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Knives, Process, Analytics

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• A thing that has no value does not exist.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Doe, Values

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• Morality is not a simple set of rules. It's a very complex struggle of conflicting patterns of values. This conflict is the residue of evolution. As new patters evolve they come into conflict with old ones. Each stage of evolution creates in its wake a wash of problems.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Struggle, Simple, Patterns

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Truth, Health, Independence

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• The intelligence of the mind can't think of any reason to live, but it goes on anyway because the intelligence of the cells can't think of any reason to die.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Thinking, Cells, Mind

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Motorcycle, Riding, Maintenance

  "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (ZAMM)". Book by Robert M. Pirsig, 1974.

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• Between the subject and the object lies the value.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Lying, Subjects, Objects

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• The range of human knowledge today is so great that we're all specialists and the distance between specializations has become so great that anyone who seeks to wander freely between them almost has to forego closeness with the people around him.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Distance, People, Today

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