“The bones and flesh and legal statistics are the garments worn by the personality, not the other way around.”

— Robert M. Pirsig , book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 7
Context: They had made the mistake of thinking of a personality as some sort of possession, like a suit of clothes, which a person wears. But apart from a personality what is there? Some bones and flesh. A collection of legal statistics, perhaps, but surely no person. The bones and flesh and legal statistics are the garments worn by the personality, not the other way around.

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Robert M. Pirsig 164

American writer and philosopher 1928–2017

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“The bones and flesh and legal statistics are the garments worn by the personality, not the other way around.”

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Robert M. Pirsig 164

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