Robert M. Pirsig

(1928–2017) Philosopher United States

351 quotes in 1197 categories

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Robert M. Pirsig was a philosopher from the United States, best known for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values.

Quick Facts About Robert M. Pirsig

Born: September 6, 1928
Died: April 24, 2017
Nationality: United States
Profession: Philosopher
Notable works: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Known for: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals

About Robert M. Pirsig

His full name was Robert Maynard Pirsig. The books explore questions about values, quality, and how people understand the world, mixing philosophy with everyday stories.

Awards & Honors

Guggenheim Fellowship

Quotes by Robert M. Pirsig · Page 9

Stuckness shouldn't be avoided. It's the psychic predecessor of all real understanding. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to an…

Robert M. Pirsig

Acceptance

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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…

Robert M. Pirsig

Character

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“To arrive in the Rocky Mountains by plane would be to see them in one kind of context,as pretty scenery. But to…

Robert M. Pirsig

Promised land

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Cliches and stereotypes such as "beatnik" or "hippie" have been invented for the antitechnologists, the antisystem people, and will continue to be.…

Robert M. Pirsig

Beatnik

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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…

Robert M. Pirsig

Goodness

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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…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“the track of Quality preselects what data we’re going to be conscious of, and it makes this selection in such a way…

Robert M. Pirsig

Excellence

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“Of the value traps, the most widespread and pernicious is value rigidity. This is an inability to revalue what one sees because…

Robert M. Pirsig

Life wisdom

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“When you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it. And even if you…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“What you need is an hypothesis for how you’re going to get that slotless screw out of there and scientific method doesn’t…

Robert M. Pirsig

Losing time

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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…

Robert M. Pirsig

Time

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Science probes; it does not prove. Imagine Newton's reaction to an objector of his law of gravity who argued that he could…

Robert M. Pirsig

Apples

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“The nature of our culture is such that if you were to look for instruction in how to do any of these…

Robert M. Pirsig

Beauty

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The hippies had in mind something that they wanted, and were calling it freedom, but in the final analysis freedom is a…

Robert M. Pirsig

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A culture that supports the dominance of social values over biological values is an absolutely superior culture to one that does not,…

Robert M. Pirsig

Culture

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It's not the 'nice' guy who brings about real social change. 'Nice' guys look nice because they're conforming. It's the 'bad' guys,…

Robert M. Pirsig

Bad guys

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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…

Robert M. Pirsig

Buddhism

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Only social patterns can control biological patterns, and the instrument of conversation between society and biology is not words. The instrument of…

Robert M. Pirsig

Biology

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It's paradoxical that where people are most closely crowded, in the big coastal cities of the East and West, the loneliness is…

Robert M. Pirsig

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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,…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“He comments on how amazing it is that everything in the universe can be described by the twenty-six written characters with which…

Robert M. Pirsig

Duality

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The thing to understand is that if you are going to reform society you don't start with cops. And if you are…

Robert M. Pirsig

Best things

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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…

Robert M. Pirsig

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I argued that physical discomfort is important only when the mood is wrong. Then you fasten on to whatever thing is uncomfortable…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“May, will you please, kindly DIG it," he remembered one of them saying, "and hold up on all those wonderful seven-dollar questions?…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“This is the hardest stuff in the world to photograph. You need a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree lens, or something. You see it, and then…

Robert M. Pirsig

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Care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he…

Robert M. Pirsig

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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…

Robert M. Pirsig

Government

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“The ideas, the things I was saying about science and ghosts, and even that idea this afternoon about caring and technology—they are…

Robert M. Pirsig

Compassion

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“Quality is the continuing stimulus which causes us to create the world in which we live. All of it. Every last bit…

Robert M. Pirsig

Religion

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“What�s new?” is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of…

Robert M. Pirsig

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Robert M. Pirsig by topic

Quality (33) Zen motorcycle maintenance (32) People (30) Mind (26) Life (23) Time (22) Psychology (22) Technology (19) Science (19) Philosophy (18) Nature (18) World (17) Thinking (17) Inspirational (17) Motorcycle (16) Values (15) Rationality (12)