---
title: "2 Adequate Quotes By Robert M. Pirsig"
description: "2 Adequate quotes by Robert M. Pirsig. Plus more from Robert M. Pirsig and more Adequate sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ac/robert-m-pirsig-817_adequate_i-think-this-fear-of-insanity-is-compara_535487.jpg"
---

> [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/i-think-this-fear-of-insanity-is-comparable-to-the-fear-people-once/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ac/robert-m-pirsig-817_adequate_i-think-this-fear-of-insanity-is-compara_535487.jpg)

> [A person filled with gumption doesn’t sit about stewing about things. He’s at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what’s up the track and meeting it when it comes. That’s gumption. If you’re going…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/a-person-filled-with-gumption-doesn-t-sit-about-stewing-about-things/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df3/robert-m-pirsig-817_adequate_a-person-filled-with-gumption-doesn-t-si_2115119.png)

## Other authors on Adequate

## More by Robert M. Pirsig

> [“And from time to time you find your “county road” takes you onto a two-rutter and then a single rutter and then into a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/and-from-time-to-time-you-find-your-county-road-takes-you-onto-a-two/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [“I started to roll over for more sleep but heard a rooster crowing and then became aware we are on vacation and there is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/i-started-to-roll-over-for-more-sleep-but-heard-a-rooster-crowing-and/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-buddha-the-godhead-resides-quite-as-comfortably-in-the-circuits/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [Even though quality cannot be defined, you know what quality is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/even-though-quality-cannot-be-defined-you-know-what-quality-is/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [I suppose philosophy is historically not a woman's game, though that is changing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/i-suppose-philosophy-is-historically-not-a-woman-s-game-though-that/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [Up until my first book was published, I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/up-until-my-first-book-was-published-i-had-all-this-potential-people/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [There is a perennial classical question that asks which part of the motorcycle, which grain of sand in which pile, is the Buddha. Obviously…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/there-is-a-perennial-classical-question-that-asks-which-part-of-the/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [“Of the value traps, the most widespread and pernicious is value rigidity. This is an inability to revalue what one sees because of commitment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/of-the-value-traps-the-most-widespread-and-pernicious-is-value/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [“Historically mystics have claimed that for a true understanding of reality metaphysics is too “scientific”. Metaphysics is not reality. Metaphysics is names about reality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/historically-mystics-have-claimed-that-for-a-true-understanding-of/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [“What’s emerging from the pattern of my own life is the for belief that the crisis is being caused by the inadequacy of existing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/what-s-emerging-from-the-pattern-of-my-own-life-is-the-for-belief/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [To speak of certain government and establishment institutions as 'the system' is to speak correctly . . . They are sustained by structural relationships…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/to-speak-of-certain-government-and-establishment-institutions-as-the/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/if-a-revolution-destroys-a-systematic-government-but-the-systematic/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-only-zen-you-can-find-on-the-tops-of-mountains-is-the-zen-you/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [Only social patterns can control biological patterns, and the instrument of conversation between society and biology is not words. The instrument of conversation between…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/only-social-patterns-can-control-biological-patterns-and-the/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

> [Even in the presence of others he was completely alone.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/even-in-the-presence-of-others-he-was-completely-alone/)

[Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/)

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