---
title: "Best Robert M. Pirsig Thoughts"
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 7

> [“The easiest intellectual analogue of pure Quality that people in our environment can understand is that ‘Quality is the response of an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-easiest-intellectual-analogue-of-pure-quality-that-people-in-our/)

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

[Biology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/biology/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4c3/robert-m-pirsig-817_biology_the-easiest-intellectual-analogue-of-pur_1618957.png)

> [“I started to roll over for more sleep but heard a rooster crowing and then became aware we are on vacation and…](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/)

[Rooster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rooster/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c20/robert-m-pirsig-817_rooster_i-started-to-roll-over-for-more-sleep-bu_74672.png)

> [Communism and socialism, programs for intellectual control over society ... fascism, a program for the social control of intellect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/communism-and-socialism-programs-for-intellectual-control-over/)

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

[Communism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communism/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7f/robert-m-pirsig-817_communism_communism-and-socialism-programs-for-int_2195072.png)

> [Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/sanity-is-not-truth-sanity-is-conformity-to-what-is-socially-expected/)

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

[Conformity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conformity/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/341/robert-m-pirsig-817_conformity_sanity-is-not-truth-sanity-is-conformity_1131886.png)

> [We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/we-take-a-handful-of-sand-from-the-endless-landscape-of-awareness/)

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

[Awareness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/awareness/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/805/robert-m-pirsig-817_awareness_we-take-a-handful-of-sand-from-the-endle_1524165.png)

> [We do need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance, and old-fashioned gumption. We really do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/we-do-need-a-return-to-individual-integrity-self-reliance-and-old/)

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

[Independence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/independence/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/966/robert-m-pirsig-817_independence_we-do-need-a-return-to-individual-integr_1521016.png)

> [The intelligence of the mind can't think of any reason to live, but it goes on anyway because the intelligence of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-intelligence-of-the-mind-can-t-think-of-any-reason-to-live-but-it/)

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

[Cells](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cells/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/50c/robert-m-pirsig-817_cells_the-intelligence-of-the-mind-can-t-think_1610534.png)

> [Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a thirty thousand page menu, and no food.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/metaphysics-is-a-restaurant-where-they-give-you-a-thirty-thousand/)

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

[Food](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/food/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cd9/robert-m-pirsig-817_food_metaphysics-is-a-restaurant-where-they-g_3008280.png)

> [You've got to keep close to your spouse I think, which is a very hard thing to do in America, with everything…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/you-ve-got-to-keep-close-to-your-spouse-i-think-which-is-a-very-hard/)

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

[Advise](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/advise/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54c/robert-m-pirsig-817_advise_you-ve-got-to-keep-close-to-your-spouse_2258847.jpg)

> [When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog to see the sport, he should take care to avoid…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/when-a-shepherd-goes-to-kill-a-wolf-and-takes-his-dog-to-see-the/)

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

[Care](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/care/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/92a/robert-m-pirsig-817_care_when-a-shepherd-goes-to-kill-a-wolf-and_2230500.png)

> [The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission…](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/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/80b/robert-m-pirsig-817_buddha_the-buddha-the-godhead-resides-quite-as_83910.jpg)

> [“This condemnation of technology is ingratitude, that's what it is. Blind alley, though. If someone's ungrateful and you tell him he's ungrateful,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/this-condemnation-of-technology-is-ingratitude-that-s-what-it-is/)

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

[Gratitude](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gratitude/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c9b/robert-m-pirsig-817_gratitude_this-condemnation-of-technology-is-ingra_1254385.png)

> [Education should not be fun. You are being brought up into society and society has a way of doing things. It may…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/education-should-not-be-fun-you-are-being-brought-up-into-society-and/)

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

[Doing things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/doing-things/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fd/robert-m-pirsig-817_doing-things_education-should-not-be-fun-you-are-bein_673579.png)

> [The past cannot remember the past. The future can't generate the future. The cutting edge of the instant right here and now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-past-cannot-remember-the-past-the-future-can-t-generate-the/)

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

[Cutting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cutting/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/41a/robert-m-pirsig-817_cutting_the-past-cannot-remember-the-past-the-fu_1595430.png)

> [We have artists with no scientific knowledge and scientists with no artistic knowledge and both with no spiritual sense of gravity at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/we-have-artists-with-no-scientific-knowledge-and-scientists-with-no/)

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

[Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3cd/robert-m-pirsig-817_art_we-have-artists-with-no-scientific-knowl_1258780.png)

> [“What keeps the world from reverting to the Neanderthal with each generation is the continuing, ongoing mythos... the huge body of common…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/what-keeps-the-world-from-reverting-to-the-neanderthal-with-each/)

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

[Body](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/body/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dad/robert-m-pirsig-817_body_what-keeps-the-world-from-reverting-to-t_377923.png)

> [What is essential to understand at this point is that until now there was no such thing as mind and matter, subject…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/what-is-essential-to-understand-at-this-point-is-that-until-now-there/)

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

[Artistic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/artistic/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d23/robert-m-pirsig-817_artistic_what-is-essential-to-understand-at-this_868002.png)

> [A person filled with gumption doesn’t sit about stewing about things. He’s at the front of the train of his own awareness,…](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/)

[Adequate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adequate/)

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

> [“The truths Phaedrus began to pursue were lateral truths; no longer the frontal truths of science, those toward which the discipline pointed,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/the-truths-phaedrus-began-to-pursue-were-lateral-truths-no-longer-the/)

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

[Discipline](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/discipline/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/robert-m-pirsig-817_discipline_the-truths-phaedrus-began-to-pursue-were_1233027.png)

> [Dialectic, which is the parent of logic, came itself from rhetoric. Rhetoric is in turn the child of the myths and poetry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/dialectic-which-is-the-parent-of-logic-came-itself-from-rhetoric/)

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

[Ancient](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ancient/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6c2/robert-m-pirsig-817_ancient_dialectic-which-is-the-parent-of-logic-c_2075374.png)

> [“In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/in-a-car-you-re-always-in-a-compartment-and-because-you-re-used-to-it/)

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

[Car](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/car/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce6/robert-m-pirsig-817_car_in-a-car-you-re-always-in-a-compartment_541432.jpg)

> [Schools teach you to imitate. If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. Here, in college, it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/schools-teach-you-to-imitate-if-you-don-t-imitate-what-the-teacher/)

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

[Bad grades](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bad-grades/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0f/robert-m-pirsig-817_bad-grades_schools-teach-you-to-imitate-if-you-don_817598.png)

> [Any philosophic explanation of Quality is going to be both false and true precisely because it is a philosophic explanation. The process…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/any-philosophic-explanation-of-quality-is-going-to-be-both-false-and/)

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

[Analytics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/analytics/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/252/robert-m-pirsig-817_analytics_any-philosophic-explanation-of-quality-i_1137068.png)

> [“So we navigate mostly by dead reckoning, and deduction from what clues we find. I keep a compass in one pocket for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/so-we-navigate-mostly-by-dead-reckoning-and-deduction-from-what-clues/)

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

[American dream](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/american-dream/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b80/robert-m-pirsig-817_american-dream_so-we-navigate-mostly-by-dead-reckoning_623479.jpg)

> [“Now there was an alternative explanation: people disagreed about Quality because some just used their immediate emotions whereas others applied their overall…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/now-there-was-an-alternative-explanation-people-disagreed-about/)

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

[Explanation People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/explanation-people-376954/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b28/robert-m-pirsig-817_explanation-people_now-there-was-an-alternative-explanation_658960.png)

> [When you've got a Chautauqua in your head, it's extremely hard not to inflict it on innocent people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/when-you-ve-got-a-chautauqua-in-your-head-it-s-extremely-hard-not-to/)

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

[Fanaticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fanaticism/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/038/robert-m-pirsig-817_fanaticism_when-you-ve-got-a-chautauqua-in-your-hea_2849272.png)

> [“It’s all right,” Phaedrus said. “We just accidentally stumbled over a genuine question, and the shock is hard to recover from.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/it-s-all-right-phaedrus-said-we-just-accidentally-stumbled-over-a/)

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

[Stumbled](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stumbled/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8c8/robert-m-pirsig-817_stumbled_it-s-all-right-phaedrus-said-we-just-acc_1509330.png)

> [“whole community of millions of living things living out their lives in a kind of benign continuum.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/whole-community-of-millions-of-living-things-living-out-their-lives/)

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

[Community](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/community/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b83/robert-m-pirsig-817_community_whole-community-of-millions-of-living-th_1783605.png)

> [In the high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/in-the-high-country-of-the-mind-one-has-to-become-adjusted-to-the/)

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

[Adjusted](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adjusted/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7a/robert-m-pirsig-817_adjusted_in-the-high-country-of-the-mind-one-has_3221220.png)

> [I have been a lifelong Democrat. Like all ideas, though, the Democrat ideas need to be dynamic. It needs to be kept…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/i-have-been-a-lifelong-democrat-like-all-ideas-though-the-democrat/)

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

[Currents](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/currents/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce6/robert-m-pirsig-817_currents_i-have-been-a-lifelong-democrat-like-all_1387740.png)

> [“To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/to-live-only-for-some-future-goal-is-shallow-it-s-the-sides-of-the-2/)

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

[Goals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/goals/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96d/robert-m-pirsig-817_goals_to-live-only-for-some-future-goal-is-sha_1934580.png)

> [It's better to live with a sad truth than with all the happy progress talk you get up here in the North.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/it-s-better-to-live-with-a-sad-truth-than-with-all-the-happy-progress/)

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

[Get up](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/get-up/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/robert-m-pirsig-817_get-up_it-s-better-to-live-with-a-sad-truth-tha_3121207.png)

> [So round and round you go, spinning mental wheels and nowhere finding anyplace to get traction. What the hell...is it?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/so-round-and-round-you-go-spinning-mental-wheels-and-nowhere-finding/)

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

[Findings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/findings/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7f/robert-m-pirsig-817_findings_so-round-and-round-you-go-spinning-menta_3082657.png)

> [For me, a writer should be more like a lighthouse keeper, just out there by himself. He shouldn't get his ideas from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/for-me-a-writer-should-be-more-like-a-lighthouse-keeper-just-out/)

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

[Ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideas/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d5b/robert-m-pirsig-817_ideas_for-me-a-writer-should-be-more-like-a-li_1559785.png)

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

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

[Look](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/look/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c0/robert-m-pirsig-817_look_you-look-at-where-you-re-going-and-where_312399.jpg)

> [Cultures are not the source of all morals, only a limited set of morals. Cultures can be graded and judged morally according…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/cultures-are-not-the-source-of-all-morals-only-a-limited-set-of/)

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

[Character](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/character/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/320/robert-m-pirsig-817_character_cultures-are-not-the-source-of-all-moral_678990.jpg)

> [Mental reflection is so much more interesting than TV it's a shame more people don't switch over to it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/mental-reflection-is-so-much-more-interesting-than-tv-it-s-a-shame/)

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

[Interesting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/interesting/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e6/robert-m-pirsig-817_interesting_mental-reflection-is-so-much-more-intere_1327164.png)

> [What I am is a heretic who's recanted and, thereby, in everyone's eyes, saved his soul. Everyone's eyes but one, who knows…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/what-i-am-is-a-heretic-who-s-recanted-and-thereby-in-everyone-s-eyes/)

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

[Deep](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/deep/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/645/robert-m-pirsig-817_deep_what-i-am-is-a-heretic-who-s-recanted-an_2742303.png)

> [If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/if-you-become-restless-speed-up-if-you-become-winded-slow-down-you/)

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

[Climbs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/climbs/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31e/robert-m-pirsig-817_climbs_if-you-become-restless-speed-up-if-you-b_2234126.png)

> [It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/it-is-a-puzzling-thing-the-truth-knocks-on-the-door-and-you-say-go/)

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

[Away](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/away/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb5/robert-m-pirsig-817_away_it-is-a-puzzling-thing-the-truth-knocks_454489.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": "We have artists with no scientific knowledge and scientists with no artistic knowledge and both with no spiritual sense of gravity at all, and the result is not just bad, it is ghastly.",
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                        "text": "“What keeps the world from reverting to the Neanderthal with each generation is the continuing, ongoing mythos... the huge body of common knowledge that unites our minds as cells are united in the body of man...”",
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                        "text": "What is essential to understand at this point is that until now there was no such thing as mind and matter, subject and object, form and substance. Those divisions are just dialectical inventions that came later...They are just ghosts, immortal gods of the modern mythos which appear to us to be real because we are within that mythos. But in reality they are just as much an artistic creation as the anthropomorphic gods they replaced.",
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                        "text": "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 to repair a motorcycle, an adequate supply of gumption is the first and most important tool. If you haven’t got that you might as well gather up all the other tools and put them away, because they won’t do you any good.",
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                        "text": "“The truths Phaedrus began to pursue were lateral truths; no longer the frontal truths of science, those toward which the discipline pointed, but the kind of truth you see laterally, out of the corner of your eye. In a laboratory situation, when your whole procedure goes haywire, when everything goes wrong or is indeterminate or is so screwed up by unexpected results you can't make head or tail out of anything, you start looking laterally. That's a word he later used to describe a growth of knowledge that doesn't move forward like an arrow in flight, but expands sideways, like an arrow enlarging in flight, or like the archer, discovering that although he has hit the bull's-eye and won the prize, his head is on a pillow and the sun is coming in the window. Lateral knowledge is knowledge that's from a wholly unexpected direction, from a direction that's not even understood as a direction until the knowledge forces itself upon one. Lateral truths point to the falseness of axioms and postulates underlying one's existing system of getting at truth.”",
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                        "text": "Dialectic, which is the parent of logic, came itself from rhetoric. Rhetoric is in turn the child of the myths and poetry of ancient Greece. That is so historically, and that is so by any application of common sense. The poetry and myths are the response of a prehistoric people to the Universe around them made on the basis of Quality. It is Quality, not dialectic, which is the generator of everything we know.",
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                        "text": "“In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”",
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                        "text": "Schools teach you to imitate. If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. Here, in college, it was more sophisticated, of course; you were supposed to imitate the teacher in such a way as to convince the teacher you were not imitating, but taking the essence of the instruction and going ahead with it on your own. That got you A's. Originality on the other hand could get you anything -- from A to F. The whole grading system cautioned against it.",
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                        "text": "Any philosophic explanation of Quality is going to be both false and true precisely because it is a philosophic explanation. The process of philosophic explanation is an analytic process, a process of breaking something down into subjects and predicates. What I mean (and everybody else means) by the word 'quality' cannot be broken down into subjects and predicates. This is not because Quality is so mysterious but because Quality is so simple, immediate and direct.",
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                        "text": "“So we navigate mostly by dead reckoning, and deduction from what clues we find. I keep a compass in one pocket for overcast days when the sun doesn't show directions and have the map mounted in a special carrier on top of the gas tank where I can keep track of miles from the last junction and know what to look for. With those tools and a lack of pressure to 'get somewhere' it works out fine and we just about have America all to ourselves.”",
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                        "text": "“Now there was an alternative explanation: people disagreed about Quality because some just used their immediate emotions whereas others applied their overall knowledge.”",
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                        "text": "When you've got a Chautauqua in your head, it's extremely hard not to inflict it on innocent people.",
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                        "text": "“It’s all right,” Phaedrus said. “We just accidentally stumbled over a genuine question, and the shock is hard to recover from.”",
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                        "text": "“whole community of millions of living things living out their lives in a kind of benign continuum.”",
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