"It was the ghost of rationality itself ...……" — Robert M. Pirsig
"It was the ghost of rationality itself ... This is the ghost of normal everyday assumptions which declares that the ultimate purpose of life, which is to keep alive, is impossible, but that this is the ultimate purpose of life anyway, so that great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why. One lives longer in order that he may live longer. There is no other purpose. That is what the ghost says."
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Robert M. Pirsig
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135 Quotes by Robert M. Pirsig
Robert M. Pirsig has 135 quotes on this site.
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I have money, fame, a happy wife, our daughter Nell.
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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…
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How are you going to teach virtue if you teach the relativity of all ethical ideas? Virtue, if it implies…
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When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he's…
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When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to…
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The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality.
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Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not.
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Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen struggle for billions of…
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I think present-day reason is an analogue of the flat earth of the medieval period. If you go too far…
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The world comes to us in an endless stream of puzzle pieces that we would like to think all fit…
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A person filled with gumption doesn’t sit about stewing about things. He’s at the front of the train of his…
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Art is anything you can do well. Anything you can do with Quality.
See all 135 quotes by Robert M. Pirsig »
More Alive Quotes
This quote is filed under Alive Quotes,
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There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the…
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No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were…
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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe,…
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I think if we didn't contradict ourselves, it would be awfully boring. It would be tedious to be alive.
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Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.
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The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our teacher. That's why, in prayer, we can ask the Lord to open up…
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A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and…
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It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me…
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I tried to keep both arts alive, but the camera won. I found that while the camera does not express…
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My biggest fear ever is to be involved in a plane crash, so when that happened... well, I'm just thankful…
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As a housewife, I feel that if the kids are still alive when my husband gets home from work, then…
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The real truth is, I just want to keep the voice of dissent alive in all of our elections. I…
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