There's so much talk about the system. And so little understanding. Robert M. Pirsig More Quotes by Robert M. Pirsig More Quotes From Robert M. Pirsig Quality isn't a thing. It is an event. Robert M. Pirsig qualityevents So round and round you go, spinning mental wheels and nowhere finding anyplace to get traction. What the hell...is it? Robert M. Pirsig spinninghellwheels Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know? Robert M. Pirsig facesforgetpast If there were only one person in the world, is there any way he could be insane? Robert M. Pirsig insanewayworld Coastal people never really know what the ocean symbolizes to landlocked inland people--what a great distant dream it is, present but unseen in the deepest level of subconsciousness, and when they arrive at the ocean and the conscious images are compared with the subconscious dream there is a sense of defeat at having come so far to be stopped by a mystery that can never be fathomed. The source of it all. Robert M. Pirsig oceandreampeople Socrates is not just expounding noble ideas in a vacuum. He is in the middle of a war between those who think truth is absolute and those who think truth is relative. He is fighting that war with everything he has. Robert M. Pirsig fightingwarthinking The idea that the majority of students attend a university for an education independent of the degree and grades is a hypocrisy everyone is happier not to expose. Occasionally some students do arrive for an education but rote and mechanical nature of the institution soon converts them to a less idealic attitude Robert M. Pirsig independentattitudeideas Morality is not a simple set of rules. It's a very complex struggle of conflicting patterns of values. This conflict is the residue of evolution. As new patters evolve they come into conflict with old ones. Each stage of evolution creates in its wake a wash of problems. Robert M. Pirsig patternssimplestruggle Within a Metaphysics of Quality, science is a set of static intellectual patterns describing this reality, but the patterns are not the reality they describe. Robert M. Pirsig qualityintellectualreality Between the subject and the object lies the value. Robert M. Pirsig objectssubjectslying Talk about rationality can get very confusing unless the things with which rationality deals are also included. Robert M. Pirsig rationalitydealsconfusing You go up the mountaintop and all you're gonna get is a great big heavy stone tablet handed to you with a bunch of rules on it. Robert M. Pirsig tabletsbigsstones The thing to understand is that if you are going to reform society you don't start with cops. And if you are going to reform intellect you don't start with psychiatrists. If you don't like our present social system or intellectual system the best thing you can do with either cops or psychiatrists is stay out of their way. You leave them 'till last. Robert M. Pirsig growthintellectualway A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books appear almost accidentally, like a sudden surge in the stock market. There are books of high quality that are a part of the culture, but that is not the same. They are a part of it. They aren't carrying it anywhere. They may talk about insanity sympathetically, for example, because that's the standard cultural attitude. But they don't carry any suggestion that insanity might be something other than sickness or degeneracy. Robert M. Pirsig writingattitudebook Quality is better seen up at the timberline than here obscured by smoky windows and oceans of words, and he sees that what he is talking about can never really be accepted here because to see it one has to be free of social authority and this is an institution of social authority. Quality for sheep is what the shepherd says. And if you take a sheep and put it up at the timberline at night when the wind is roaring, that sheep will be panicked half to death and will call and call until the shepherd comes, or comes the wolf. Robert M. Pirsig oceanwindnight What I am is a heretic who's recanted, and thereby in everyone's eyes saved his soul. Everyone's eyes but one, who knows deep down inside that all he has saved is his skin. Robert M. Pirsig skinseyesoul The major producer of the social chaos, the indeterminacy of thought and values that rational knowledge is supposed to eliminate, is none other than science itself. Robert M. Pirsig chaossocialscience Mental reflection is so much more interesting than TV it's a shame more people don't switch over to it. Robert M. Pirsig reflectionpeopleinteresting Education should not be fun. You are being brought up into society and society has a way of doing things. It may not be pleasant but sooner or later you are going to have to do it anyway. Robert M. Pirsig mayfunway People say mental hospitals are for the patients, in fact they are to protect society from them. They are justified in doing that. Society has to do what is best for itself. Robert M. Pirsig patientfactspeople
