Robert M. Pirsig
Robert M. Pirsig
Robert Maynard Pirsigis an American writer and philosopher, and the author of the philosophical novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Valuesand Lila: An Inquiry into Morals...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth6 September 1928
CountryUnited States of America
arrived simple solutions
The solutions all are simple -- after you have arrived at them. But they're simple only when you know already what they are.
people
People are all at sixes and sevens with each other. They're always quarreling. They never somehow resolve anything.
produces
It's the dualistic ways of looking at things that produces the evil.
buddha circuits computer cycle gears resides
The Buddha resides 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.
people until
Up until my first book was published, I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say: 'No, I didn't screw up.'
authors everybody famous
I did not want to write one of those sequels that famous first-book authors get into where everybody says, 'Oh yeah.'
head improve outward work
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.
complete confidence dedicated people political religious rise shouting sun
You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know" it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths...
good method ought scientific scientists seeing testing truth
Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20 -- 20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.
tops
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
deep eyes heretic inside knows saved
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 deep down inside that all he has saved is his skin.
future mountain sides sustain
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
independence individual return
We do need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance, and old-fashioned gumption. We really do.
goes knocks puzzling truth
It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling.