---
title: "Best Robert M. Pirsig Quotations"
description: "Robert M. Pirsig was an American writer and philosopher. He wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) and Lila (1991), and later co‑authore..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-robert-m-pirsig-817.jpg"
---

![Portrait of Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-robert-m-pirsig-817.jpg)

# 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 4

> [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/)

[Completely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/completely/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe4/robert-m-pirsig-817_completely_even-in-the-presence-of-others-he-was-co_162712.png)

> [Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/boredom-always-precedes-a-period-of-great-creativity/)

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

[Always](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/always/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3d3/robert-m-pirsig-817_always_boredom-always-precedes-a-period-of-grea_584208.png)

> [That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/that-s-all-the-motorcycle-is-a-system-of-concepts-worked-out-in-steel/)

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

[Bikers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bikers/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/999/robert-m-pirsig-817_bikers_that-s-all-the-motorcycle-is-a-system-of_217616.png)

> [If you run from technology, it will chase you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/if-you-run-from-technology-it-will-chase-you/)

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

[Chase](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/chase/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4b2/robert-m-pirsig-817_chase_if-you-run-from-technology-it-will-chase_335556.png)

> [If there were only one person in the world, is there any way he could be insane?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/if-there-were-only-one-person-in-the-world-is-there-any-way-he-could/)

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

[Ifs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ifs/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a9/robert-m-pirsig-817_ifs_if-there-were-only-one-person-in-the-wor_2122427.png)

> [It's nice to start journeys pleasantly, even when you know they won't end that way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/it-s-nice-to-start-journeys-pleasantly-even-when-you-know-they-won-t/)

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

[Ends](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ends/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/728/robert-m-pirsig-817_ends_it-s-nice-to-start-journeys-pleasantly-e_1377717.png)

> [Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/although-motorcycle-riding-is-romantic-motorcycle-maintenance-is/)

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

[Bike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bike/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2b/robert-m-pirsig-817_bike_although-motorcycle-riding-is-romantic-m_2145590.png)

> [“Stuckness. That’s what I want to talk about today. Back”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/stuckness-that-s-what-i-want-to-talk-about-today-back/)

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

[Talk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/talk/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c99/robert-m-pirsig-817_talk_stuckness-that-s-what-i-want-to-talk-abo_2356304.png)

> [“You follow these little discrepancies long enough and they sometimes open up into huge revelations.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/you-follow-these-little-discrepancies-long-enough-and-they-sometimes/)

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

[Discrepancies](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/discrepancies/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/929/robert-m-pirsig-817_discrepancies_you-follow-these-little-discrepancies-lo_989526.png)

> [“I was an outsider who seemed more interested in attacking what was being taught than learning from it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/i-was-an-outsider-who-seemed-more-interested-in-attacking-what-was/)

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

[Attacking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/attacking/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c67/robert-m-pirsig-817_attacking_i-was-an-outsider-who-seemed-more-intere_1539369.png)

> [When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/when-analytic-thought-the-knife-is-applied-to-experience-something-is/)

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

[Analytic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/analytic/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b06/robert-m-pirsig-817_analytic_when-analytic-thought-the-knife-is-appli_1466948.png)

> [The Buddha takes no position on gods, he suggests they may exist or they may not, but either way you can live…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-buddha-takes-no-position-on-gods-he-suggests-they-may-exist-or/)

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

[Buddha](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/buddha/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/535/robert-m-pirsig-817_buddha_the-buddha-takes-no-position-on-gods-he_311296.png)

> [When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he's insane, which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/when-you-look-directly-at-an-insane-man-all-you-see-is-a-reflection/)

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

[Depression](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/depression/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7d4/robert-m-pirsig-817_depression_when-you-look-directly-at-an-insane-man_1844830.png)

> [The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-place-to-improve-the-world-is-first-in-one-s-own-heart-and-head-3/)

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

[Hands](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hands/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/646/robert-m-pirsig-817_hands_the-place-to-improve-the-world-is-first_3109152.png)

> [No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/no-one-is-fanatically-shouting-that-the-sun-is-going-to-rise-tomorrow/)

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

[Atheism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/atheism/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97f/robert-m-pirsig-817_atheism_no-one-is-fanatically-shouting-that-the_1724796.png)

> [You go up the mountaintop and all you're gonna get is a great big heavy stone tablet handed to you with a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/you-go-up-the-mountaintop-and-all-you-re-gonna-get-is-a-great-big/)

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

[Bigs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bigs/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/robert-m-pirsig-817_bigs_you-go-up-the-mountaintop-and-all-you-re_210102.png)

> [Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/like-those-in-the-valley-behind-us-most-people-stand-in-sight-of-the/)

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

[Behinds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/behinds/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c76/robert-m-pirsig-817_behinds_like-those-in-the-valley-behind-us-most_589645.png)

> [“Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/programs-of-a-political-nature-are-important-end-products-of-social/)

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

[Ends](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ends/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea3/robert-m-pirsig-817_ends_programs-of-a-political-nature-are-impor_1407661.png)

> [“To reach him you have to back up and back up, and the further back you go, the further back you see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/to-reach-him-you-have-to-back-up-and-back-up-and-the-further-back-you/)

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

[Communication](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communication/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2c4/robert-m-pirsig-817_communication_to-reach-him-you-have-to-back-up-and-bac_959406.png)

> [What's wrong with technology is that it's not connected in any real way with matters of the spirit and of the heart.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/what-s-wrong-with-technology-is-that-it-s-not-connected-in-any-real/)

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

[Accidents](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accidents/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54e/robert-m-pirsig-817_accidents_what-s-wrong-with-technology-is-that-it_485454.png)

> [“You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes much sense, but then you look back at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/you-look-at-where-you-re-going-and-where-you-are-and-it-never-makes-2/)

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

[Look Going](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/look-going-515824/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/87e/robert-m-pirsig-817_look-going_you-look-at-where-you-re-going-and-where_513893.png)

> [“There is mountain air in this room. It's cool and moist and almost fragrant. One deep breath makes me ready for the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/there-is-mountain-air-in-this-room-it-s-cool-and-moist-and-almost/)

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

[Breath](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/breath/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/688/robert-m-pirsig-817_breath_there-is-mountain-air-in-this-room-it-s_1520688.jpg)

> [“This larger goal wouldn’t be the imitation of education in Universities today, glossed over and concealed by grades and degrees that give…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/this-larger-goal-wouldn-t-be-the-imitation-of-education-in/)

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

[Colleges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/colleges/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b76/robert-m-pirsig-817_colleges_this-larger-goal-wouldn-t-be-the-imitati_2559545.jpg)

> [“He felt that institutions such as schools, churches, governments and political organizations of every sort all tended to direct thought for ends…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/he-felt-that-institutions-such-as-schools-churches-governments-and/)

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

[Institutions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/institutions/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/034/robert-m-pirsig-817_institutions_he-felt-that-institutions-such-as-school_204539.jpg)

> [“He noted that although normally you associate Quality with objects, feelings of Quality sometimes occur without any object at all. This is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/he-noted-that-although-normally-you-associate-quality-with-objects/)

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

[Subjective](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjective/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d9f/robert-m-pirsig-817_subjective_he-noted-that-although-normally-you-asso_508033.png)

> [Coastal people never really know what the ocean symbolizes to landlocked inland people--what a great distant dream it is, present but unseen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/coastal-people-never-really-know-what-the-ocean-symbolizes-to/)

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

[Coastal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/coastal/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/698/robert-m-pirsig-817_coastal_coastal-people-never-really-know-what-th_1285526.png)

> [“We’re living in topsy-turvy times, and I think that what causes the topsy-turvy feeling is inadequacy of old forms of thought to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/we-re-living-in-topsy-turvy-times-and-i-think-that-what-causes-the/)

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

[Feeling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feeling/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5e2/robert-m-pirsig-817_feeling_we-re-living-in-topsy-turvy-times-and-i_2361557.jpg)

> [“What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua...that's the only name I can think of for it...like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/what-is-in-mind-is-a-sort-of-chautauqua-that-s-the-only-name-i-can/)

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

[Dig deep](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dig-deep/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/017/robert-m-pirsig-817_dig-deep_what-is-in-mind-is-a-sort-of-chautauqua_553857.jpg)

> [What the Metaphysics of Quality would do is take this separate category, Quality, and show how it contains within itself both subjects…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/what-the-metaphysics-of-quality-would-do-is-take-this-separate/)

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

[Assumption](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/assumption/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5c0/robert-m-pirsig-817_assumption_what-the-metaphysics-of-quality-would-do_318917.jpg)

> [“Phaedrus wrote a letter from India about a pilgrimage to holy Mount Kailas, the source of the Ganges and the abode of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/phaedrus-wrote-a-letter-from-india-about-a-pilgrimage-to-holy-mount/)

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

[Every step](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/every-step/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/116/robert-m-pirsig-817_every-step_phaedrus-wrote-a-letter-from-india-about_2241566.jpg)

> [“The cause of our current social crises, he would have said, is a genetic defect within the nature of reason itself. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-cause-of-our-current-social-crises-he-would-have-said-is-a/)

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

[Better world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/better-world/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ae/robert-m-pirsig-817_better-world_the-cause-of-our-current-social-crises-h_2733056.png)

> [“If your mind is truly, profoundly stuck, then you may be much better off than when it was loaded with ideas. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/if-your-mind-is-truly-profoundly-stuck-then-you-may-be-much-better/)

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

[Being stuck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/being-stuck-17746/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/626/robert-m-pirsig-817_being-stuck_if-your-mind-is-truly-profoundly-stuck-t_1442734.jpg)

> [Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/sometimes-it-s-a-little-better-to-travel-than-to-arrive/)

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

[Arrive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arrive/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2bb/robert-m-pirsig-817_arrive_sometimes-it-s-a-little-better-to-travel_3223808.png)

> [“This condemnation of technology is ingratitude, that’s what it is. Blind”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/this-condemnation-of-technology-is-ingratitude-that-s-what-it-is-blind/)

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

[Blind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blind/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2e/robert-m-pirsig-817_blind_this-condemnation-of-technology-is-ingra_428988.png)

> [Definitions are the foundation of reason. You can't reason without them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/definitions-are-the-foundation-of-reason-you-can-t-reason-without-them/)

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

[Definitions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/definitions/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/37b/robert-m-pirsig-817_definitions_definitions-are-the-foundation-of-reason_2840783.png)

> [If you are following the dharma no matter what you do it is moral.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/if-you-are-following-the-dharma-no-matter-what-you-do-it-is-moral/)

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

[Buddhism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/buddhism/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c74/robert-m-pirsig-817_buddhism_if-you-are-following-the-dharma-no-matte_1711543.png)

> [It's the dualistic ways of looking at things that produces the evil.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/it-s-the-dualistic-ways-of-looking-at-things-that-produces-the-evil/)

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

[Evil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evil/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/09f/robert-m-pirsig-817_evil_it-s-the-dualistic-ways-of-looking-at-th_2692725.png)

> [The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-most-moral-activity-of-all-is-the-creation-of-space-for-life-to/)

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

[Activity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/activity/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a0e/robert-m-pirsig-817_activity_the-most-moral-activity-of-all-is-the-cr_3227008.png)

> [Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/quality-is-a-direct-experience-independent-of-and-prior-to/)

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

[Direct](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/direct/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bea/robert-m-pirsig-817_direct_quality-is-a-direct-experience-independe_1484736.png)

> [I have money, fame, a happy wife, our daughter Nell.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/i-have-money-fame-a-happy-wife-our-daughter-nell/)

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

[Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/414/robert-m-pirsig-817_children_i-have-money-fame-a-happy-wife-our-daugh_2241614.png)

## Robert M. Pirsig by topic

[Quality (33)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/quality/robert-m-pirsig/) [Zen motorcycle maintenance (32)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/zen-motorcycle-maintenance/robert-m-pirsig/) [People (30)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/robert-m-pirsig/) [Mind (26)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind/robert-m-pirsig/) [Life (23)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/robert-m-pirsig/) [Time (22)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/robert-m-pirsig/) [Psychology (22)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychology/robert-m-pirsig/) [Technology (19)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/technology/robert-m-pirsig/) [Science (19)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/robert-m-pirsig/) [Way (18)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/robert-m-pirsig/) [Philosophy (18)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy/robert-m-pirsig/) [Nature (18)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/robert-m-pirsig/) [Ifs (18)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ifs/robert-m-pirsig/) [World (17)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/robert-m-pirsig/) [Thinking (17)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/robert-m-pirsig/) [Inspirational (17)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inspirational/robert-m-pirsig/) [Mountain (16)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mountain/robert-m-pirsig/) [Motorcycle (16)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/motorcycle/robert-m-pirsig/) [Values (15)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/values/robert-m-pirsig/) [Rationality (12)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rationality/robert-m-pirsig/)

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                        "text": "You go up the mountaintop and all you're gonna get is a great big heavy stone tablet handed to you with a bunch of rules on it.",
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                        "text": "Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships.",
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                        "text": "“Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right. The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. ”",
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                        "text": "“To reach him you have to back up and back up, and the further back you go, the further back you see you have to go, until what looked like a small problem of communication turns into a major philosophic inquiry.”",
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                        "text": "What's wrong with technology is that it's not connected in any real way with matters of the spirit and of the heart. And so it does blind, ugly things quite by accident and gets hated for that.",
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                        "text": "“You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes much sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something.”",
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                        "text": "“There is mountain air in this room. It's cool and moist and almost fragrant. One deep breath makes me ready for the next one and then the next one and with each deep breath I feel a little readier until I jump out of bed and pull up the shade and let all that sunlight in - brilliant, cool, bright, sharp and clear.”",
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                        "text": "“This larger goal wouldn’t be the imitation of education in Universities today, glossed over and concealed by grades and degrees that give the appearance of something happening when, in fact, almost nothing is going on. It would be the real thing.”",
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                        "text": "“He felt that institutions such as schools, churches, governments and political organizations of every sort all tended to direct thought for ends other than truth, for the perpetuation of their own functions, and for the control of individuals in the service of these functions.”",
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                        "text": "“He noted that although normally you associate Quality with objects, feelings of Quality sometimes occur without any object at all. This is what led him at first to think that maybe Quality is all subjective. But subjective pleasure wasn’t what he meant by Quality either. Quality decreases subjectivity. Quality takes you out of yourself, makes you aware of the world around you. Quality is opposed to subjectivity.”",
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                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Coastal people never really know what the ocean symbolizes to landlocked inland people--what a great distant dream it is, present but unseen in the deepest level of subconsciousness, and when they arrive at the ocean and the conscious images are compared with the subconscious dream there is a sense of defeat at having come so far to be stopped by a mystery that can never be fathomed. The source of it all.",
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                        "text": "“We’re living in topsy-turvy times, and I think that what causes the topsy-turvy feeling is inadequacy of old forms of thought to deal with new experiences. I’ve heard it said that the only real learning results from hang-ups, where instead of expanding the branches of what you already know, you have to stop and drift laterally for a while until you come across something that allows you to expand the roots of what you already know.”",
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                        "text": "“What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua...that's the only name I can think of for it...like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are now in, an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer. The Chautauquas were pushed aside by faster-paced radio, movies and TV, and it seems to me the change was not entirely an improvement. Perhaps because of these changes the stream of national consciousness moves faster now, and is broader, but it seems to run less deep. The old channels cannot contain it and in its search for new ones there seems to be growing havoc and destruction along its banks. In this Chautauqua I would like not to cut any new channels of consciousness but simply dig deeper into old ones that have become silted in with the debris of thoughts grown stale and platitudes too often repeated. \"What's new?\" is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question \"What is best?,\" a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream. There are eras of human history in which the channels of thought have been too deeply cut and no change was possible, and nothing new ever happened, and \"best\" was a matter of dogma, but that is not the situation now. Now the stream of our common consciousness seems to be obliterating its own banks, losing its central direction and purpose, flooding the lowlands, disconnecting and isolating the highlands and to no particular purpose other than the wasteful fulfillment of its own internal momentum. Some channel deepening seems called for.”",
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                        "text": "What the Metaphysics of Quality would do is take this separate category, Quality, and show how it contains within itself both subjects and objects. The Metaphysics of Quality would show how things become enormously more coherent-fabulously more coherent-when you start with an assumption that Quality is the primary empirical reality of the world. . . . . . . but showing that, of course, was a very big job. . . .",
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                        "text": "“Phaedrus wrote a letter from India about a pilgrimage to holy Mount Kailas, the source of the Ganges and the abode of Shiva, high in the Himalayas, in the company of a holy man and his adherents. He never reached the mountain. After the third day he gave up, exhausted, and the pilgrimage went on without him. He said he had the physical strength but that physical strength wasn’t enough. He had the intellectual motivation but that wasn’t enough either. He didn’t think he had been arrogant but thought that he was undertaking the pilgrimage to broaden his experience, to gain understanding for himself. He was trying to use the mountain for his own purposes and the pilgrimage too. He regarded himself as the fixed entity, not the pilgrimage or the mountain, and thus wasn’t ready for it. He speculated that the other pilgrims, the ones who reached the mountain, probably sensed the holiness of the mountain so intensely that each footstep was an act of devotion, an act of submission to this holiness. The holiness of the mountain infused into their own spirits enabled them to endure far more than anything he, with his greater physical strength, could take. To the untrained eye ego-climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical. Both kinds of climbers place one foot in front of the other. Both breathe in and out at the same rate. Both stop when tired. Both go forward when rested. But what a difference! The ego-climber is like an instrument that’s out of adjustment. He puts his foot down an instant too soon or too late. He’s likely to miss a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees. He goes on when the sloppiness of his step shows he’s tired. He rests at odd times. He looks up the trail trying to see what’s ahead even when he knows what’s ahead because he just looked a second before. He goes too fast or too slow for the conditions and when he talks his talk is forever about somewhere else, something else. He’s here but he’s not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be farther up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then it will be “here.” What he’s looking for, what he wants, is all around him, but he doesn’t want that because it is all around him. Every step’s an effort, both physically and spiritually, because he imagines his goal to be external and distant.”",
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                        "text": "“The cause of our current social crises, he would have said, is a genetic defect within the nature of reason itself. And until this genetic defect is cleared, the crises will continue. Our current modes of rationality are not moving society forward into a better world. They are taking it further and further from that better world. Since the Renaissance these modes have worked. As long as the need for food, clothing and shelter is dominant they will continue to work. But now that for huge masses of people these needs no longer overwhelm everything else, the whole structure of reason, handed down to us from ancient times, is no longer adequate. It begins to be seen for what it really is…emotionally hollow, esthetically meaningless and spiritually empty.”",
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                        "text": "“If your mind is truly, profoundly stuck, then you may be much better off than when it was loaded with ideas. The solution to the problem often at first seems unimportant or undesirable, but the state of stuckness allows it, in time, to assumes its true importance. It seemed small because our previous rigid evaluation which led to the stuckness made it small. But now consider the fact that no matter how hard you try to hang on to it, this stuckness is bound to disappear. Your mind will naturally and freely move toward a solution. Unless you are a real master at staying stuckk you can't prevent this. The fear of stuckness is needless because the longer you stay stuck the more you see the Quality-reality that gets you unstuck every time. What's really been getting you stuck is the running from the stuckness through the cars of your train of knowledge looking for a solution that is out in front of the train. Stuckness shouldn't be avoided. It's the psychic predecessor of all real understanding.”",
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                        "text": "Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive",
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                        "text": "“This condemnation of technology is ingratitude, that’s what it is. Blind”",
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                        "text": "Definitions are the foundation of reason. You can't reason without them.",
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                        "text": "If you are following the dharma no matter what you do it is moral.",
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                        "text": "The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around.",
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