American - Philosopher | September 6, 1928 -
Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.
Robert M. Pirsig
GreatCreativityBoredomAlways
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.
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The solutions all are simple - after you have arrived at them. But they're simple only when you know already what they are.
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To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
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When somebody goes outside the cultural norms, the culture has to protect itself.
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The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I'm looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.
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The funny thing about insane people is that it is kind of the opposite of being a celebrity. Nobody envies you.
FunnyPeopleYouNobodyKindBeing
It is not good to talk about Zen, because Zen is nothingness... If you talk about it, you are always lying, and if you don't talk about it, no one knows it is there.
GoodYouLyingTalkAlwaysZen
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.
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The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
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Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen struggle for billions of years to organise themselves into a professor of chemistry? What's the motive?
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Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.
ExperienceQualityIntellectualPrior
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