Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 25
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Context: I think that if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not with talk about relationships of a political nature, which are inevitably dualistic, full of subjects and objects and their relationship to one another; or with programs full of things for other people to do. I think that kind of approach starts it at the end and presumes the end is the beginning. Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right. The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. <!-- p. 304
“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.”
This quote was actually composed by Louis Nizer, and published in his book, Between You and Me (1948).
Misattributed
Variant: He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.
The Abdication of Man https://archive.org/stream/jstor-25119048/25119048#page/n5/mode/2up.
“First with the head, then with the heart, you'll be ahead from the start.”
Variant: First with the head, then with the heart.
Source: The Power of One
With My Own Two Hands.
Song lyrics, Diamonds on the Inside (2003)
Quotes from secondary sources, Smooth Stones Taken From Ancient Brooks, 1860
“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”
An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
