"To speak of certain government and establishment institutions……" — Robert M. Pirsig
"To speak of certain government and establishment institutions as 'the system' is to speak correctly . . . They are sustained by structural relationships even when they have lost all other meaning and purpose. People arrive at a factory and perform a totally meaningless task from eight to five without question because the structure demands it be that way. There's no villian, no 'mean guy' who wants them to live meaningless lives, it's just that the structure, the system demands it and no one is willing to take on the formidable task of changing the structure just because it is meaningless."
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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.
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More All Quotes
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The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes…
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I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is…
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We must all make peace so that we can all live in peace.
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Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
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A friend to all is a friend to none.
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