
“Absence of Quality is the essence of squareness.”
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
As quoted by TIME magazine (28 January 1974)
1970s
“Absence of Quality is the essence of squareness.”
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678), VII. On Air and Manner
Context: Few men, nevertheless, can have unison in many matters without being a copy of each other, if each follow his natural turn of mind. But in general a person will not wholly follow it. He loves to imitate. We often imitate the same person without perceiving it, and we neglect our own good qualities for the good qualities of others, which generally do not suit us.
As quoted in How They Succeeded (1901) by Orison Swett Marden
Context: I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
Source: Philosophy of Education, p. 86.
“The fortunes of a nation are determined above everything by the quality of its people.”
Speech at Douglas Castle, Lanarkshire, Scotland (27 August 1927), quoted in Our Inheritance (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938), p. 129.
1927
“The quality of our life
depends on the quality
of the seeds
that lie deep in our consciousness.”
Understanding Our Mind (2006) Parallax Press ISBN 978-81-7223-796-7
Interview with Linus Torvalds of The Linux Foundation, 2008-09-15, Torvalds, Linus, 2008-12-31 http://www.linuxfoundation.org/events/node/154,
2000s, 2008
“The first quality of a leader of people – always the first quality – is a devotion to truth.”
Leon MacLaren, Principles of Music, 1978