Robert Maynard Pirsig
at Liverpool conference, photo by Ian Glendinning (7 July 2005)
Born: 6 September 1928, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Biography from Wikipedia and The Guardian interview (19 November 2006)
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
Robert M. Pirsig quotes:
Quotes found : 62 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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- A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books occur almost accidentally, like a sudden change in the stock market. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - "Afterword" to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1984 edition) - A kind of chaos set in. Suddenly I realized that the person who had come this far was about to expire. I was terrified, and curious as to what was coming. I felt so sorry for this guy I was leaving behind. It was a separation. This is described in the psychiatric canon as catatonic schizophrenia. It is cited in the Zen Buddhist canon as hard enlightenment. I have never insisted on either — in fact I switch back and forth depending on who I am talking to. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) - Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Any person of any philosophic persuasion who sits on a hot stove will verify without any intellectual argument whatsoever that he is in an undeniably low-quality situation: that the value of his predicament is negative. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals (1991) - Any philosophic explanation of Quality is going to be both false and true precisely because it is a philosophic explanation. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) - Aristotle has always been eminently attackable and eminently attacked throughout history, and shooting down Aristotle's patent absurdities, like shooting fish in a barrel, didn't afford much satisfaction. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) - Art is anything you can do well. Anything you can do with Quality. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - NPR Interview with Pirsig (1974) - Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - "Afterword" to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1984 edition) - Dialectic generally means "of the nature of the dialogue," which is a conversation between two persons. Nowadays it means logical argumentation. It involves a technique of cross-examination, by which truth is arrived at. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) - Even though quality cannot be defined, you know what quality is. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Everything is an analogy. But the dialecticians don't know that. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) - Good is a noun rather than an adjective. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals (1991) - How are you going to teach virtue if you teach the relativity of all ethical ideas? Virtue, if it implies anything at all, implies an ethical absolute. A person whose idea of what is proper varies from day to day can be admired for his broadmindedness, but not for his virtue. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) - I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it. permalink
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)
Quotes found : 62 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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