Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Quotes from book
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values , by Robert M. Pirsig, is a book that was first published in 1974. It is a work of fictionalized autobiography, and is the first of Pirsig's texts in which he explores his Metaphysics of Quality.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
“Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive”
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
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
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 30
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
“Is it hard?'
Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes thats hard.”
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
This is attributed to Pirsig by Richard Dawkins in the Preface to The God Delusion (2006), p. 28, but cannot be found prior to that. It is obviously a paraphrase of the following from Pirsig's Lila - An Inquiry Into Morals (1991): „An insane delusion can't be held by a group at all. A person isn't considered insane if there are a number of people who believe the same way. Insanity isn't supposed to be a communicable disease. If one other person starts to believe him, or maybe two or three, then it's a religion." ( books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=51i6WkGn6qYC&q=%22An+insane+delusion%22; books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=WZtRAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA426)
Disputed
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 1
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
“It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.”
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 29
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 24
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 14
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 29
