WIST Quotations

Pirsig, Robert -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

One geometry cannot be more true than another; it can only be more convenient. Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
(Attributed)

Pirsig, Robert -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The moment you open your mouth to say one thing about the nature of reality, you automatically have a whole set of enemies who’ve already said reality is something else.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
(Attributed)

Pirsig, Robert -- Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals (1991)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The world comes to us in an endless stream of puzzle pieces that we would like to think all fit together somehow, but that in fact never do.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals (1991)

Pirsig, Robert -- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)

Pirsig, Robert -- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 1 (1974)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 1 (1974)

Pirsig, Robert -- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 1 (1974)

Dave — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 12:05:21 +0000

[The] flight from and hatred of technology is self-defeating. The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha — which is to demean oneself.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 1 (1974)

Pirsig, Robert -- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 13 (1974)

Dave — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:43:14 +0000

When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it’s always because those dogmas or goals are in doubt.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 13 (1974)

Pirsig, Robert -- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 25 (1974)

Dave — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:06:21 +0000

The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 25 (1974)

Pirsig, Robert -- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 8 (1974)

Dave — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 11:43:26 +0000

If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government.

Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) American philosopher, writer
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, ch. 8 (1974)