Robert M. Pirsig Quotes & Sayings

“Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.”

“The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon.”

“For me, a writer should be more like a lighthouse keeper, just out there by himself. He shouldn't get his ideas from other people all around him.”

“The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”

“Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20 - 20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.”

“The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”

“To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.”

“When somebody goes outside the cultural norms, the culture has to protect itself.”

“Even in the presence of others he was completely alone.”

“One geometry cannot be more true than another; it can only be more convenient. Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.”