St. 18
The Present Crisis (1844)
Context: New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future’s portal with the Past’s blood-rusted key.
“Plato is the essential Buddha-seeker who appears again and again in each generation, moving onward and upward toward the "one." Aristotle is the eternal motorcycle mechanic who prefers the "many."”
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 29
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Robert M. Pirsig 164
American writer and philosopher 1928–2017Related quotes
Author's Note
The Silver Stallion (1926)
Context: Each in his day, and within howsoever limited a circle of adherents, awakened that sustaining faith which appears vitally necessary to men's contentment, in the legend of the all powerful Redeemer who will come again, to-morrow.
The theme of this book, then, is how that legend came to attach itself to Dom Manuel; how, in particular, that legend afterward affected, or did not affect, those persons who had known Dom Manuel almost intimately; and how in the end nobody believed in it any longer except Donander Veratyr. But Donander Veratyr was God.
44 : God Alone Is, p. 74.
The Everything and the Nothing (1963)
Section 2 : Religion
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Source: Under the Volcano (1947), Ch. XII (p. 346)
On Politics: A History of Political Thought: From Herodotus to the Present (2012), Ch. 3 : Aristotle: Politics Is Not Philosophy
“There is nobody to wake up eternal seekers.”
“Hegemonikon,” p. 27
Circling: 1978-1987 (1993), Sequence: “Light Bugs”