List of Robert M. Pirsig Quotes

The Kid Who Is Scared Is The One The Bullies Go After. I Used To Get Beat Up Pretty Badly.

If You Are Following The Dharma No Matter What You Do It Is Moral.

I Suppose Philosophy Is Historically Not A Woman's Game, Though That Is Changing.

You Have To Remember, That Insane People Can Do Some Horrors Themselves. I Had Committed No Crime, Though. I Hadn't Shot Anybody. Yet.

I Think Metaphysics Is Good If It Improves Everyday Life; Otherwise Forget It.

There Is An Evil Tendency Underlying All Our Technology - The Tendency To Do What Is Reasonable Even When It Isn't Any Good.

It's Better To Live With A Sad Truth Than With All The Happy Progress Talk You Get Up Here In The North.

Only Social Patterns Can Control Biological Patterns, And The Instrument Of Conversation Between Society And Biology Is Not Words. The Instrument Of Conversation Between Society And Biology Has Always Been A Policeman Or A Soldier And His Gun.

…the Doctrinal Differences Between Hinduism And Buddhism And Taoism Are Not Anywhere Near As Important As Doctrinal Differences Among Christianity And Islam And Judaism. Holy Wars Are Not Fought Over Them Because Verbalized Statements About Reality Are Never Presumed To Be Reality Itself.

We Always Condemn Most In Others, He Thought, That Which We Most Fear In Ourselves.

There Is A Perennial Classical Question That Asks Which Part Of The Motorcycle, Which Grain Of Sand In Which Pile, Is The Buddha. Obviously To Ask That Question Is To Look In The Wrong Direction, For The Buddha Is Everywhere. But Just As Obviously To Ask The Question Is To Look In The Right Direction, For The Buddha Is Everwhere.

I've Wondered Why It Took Us So Long To Catch On. We Saw It, And Yet We Didn't See It. Or Rather We Were Trained Not To See It. Conned Perhaps Into Thinking That The Real Action Was Metropolitan And All This Was Just Boring Hinterland. It Was A Puzzling Thing. The Truth Knocks On The Door And You Say, "go Away. I'm Looking For The Truth." And So It Goes Away. Puzzling.