Want Quotes by Robert M. Pirsig

10 Want quotes by Robert M. Pirsig

Robert M. Pirsig ties desire to the pursuit of quality. In ten concise statements, he lays out his philosophical take on what we seek, providing a succinct entry into his reflective worldview.

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Civilization, or "the system" or "society" or whatever you want to call it, is best served not by mules but by free…

Robert M. Pirsig

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I did not want to write one of those sequels that famous first-book authors get into where everybody says, 'Oh yeah.'

Robert M. Pirsig

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You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.

Robert M. Pirsig

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Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a…

Robert M. Pirsig

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When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things.

Robert M. Pirsig

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We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with the emphasis on "good" rather than on "time"…

Robert M. Pirsig

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When are we going to get going?" Chris says. "What's your hurry?" I ask. "I just want to get going." "There's nothing…

Robert M. Pirsig

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It's normal at this point for the fear-anger syndrome to take over and make you want to hammer on that side plate…

Robert M. Pirsig

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Schools teach you to imitate. If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. Here, in college, it…

Robert M. Pirsig

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To speak of certain government and establishment institutions as 'the system' is to speak correctly . . . They are sustained by…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“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…

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“I started to roll over for more sleep but heard a rooster crowing and then became aware we are on vacation and there is…

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The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he…

Robert M. Pirsig

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Even though quality cannot be defined, you know what quality is.

Robert M. Pirsig

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I suppose philosophy is historically not a woman's game, though that is changing.

Robert M. Pirsig

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Up until my first book was published, I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say:…

Robert M. Pirsig

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There is a perennial classical question that asks which part of the motorcycle, which grain of sand in which pile, is the Buddha. Obviously…

Robert M. Pirsig

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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 of commitment…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“Historically mystics have claimed that for a true understanding of reality metaphysics is too “scientific”. Metaphysics is not reality. Metaphysics is names about reality.…

Robert M. Pirsig

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“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…

Robert M. Pirsig

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To speak of certain government and establishment institutions as 'the system' is to speak correctly . . . They are sustained by structural relationships…

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 patterns will…

Robert M. Pirsig

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The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.

Robert M. Pirsig

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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 conversation between…

Robert M. Pirsig

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Even in the presence of others he was completely alone.

Robert M. Pirsig

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