31 Quotes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert M. Pirsig’s book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values was first published in 1974. According to the author’s testimony the book was rejected at the surprising number of 121 times by the editors, subsequently climbing to the best-sellers for decades after its publication.
In terms of genre it’s a 400 pages novel with autobiographical traces. While the plot is about the author’s across-the-west motorcycle journey with his son and some friends, the main theme is the so-called “Metaphysics of Quality”, in the search of which the main character finally falls into insanity. The story is entwined with a sub-narrative about human values, Zen and the notion/concept of Quality defined as the transcendental prototype of our lives or the only true reality. From this perspective the motorcycle maintenance serves as an analog for any human work, providing the ground upon which Pirsig unfolds his personal ethical philosophy along with commenting on some great thinkers of the past.
Many readers have claimed this famous book to be a masterpiece offering a great introduction to both eastern and western philosophy as well. Here are some quotes from this famous book to keep you inspired!
- The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The more you look, the more you see. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Do what is “reasonable” even when it isn’t any good. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- There are as many routes as there are individual souls. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Art is anything you can do well. Anything you can do with Quality. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Waiting. For that missing seed crystal of thought that would suddenly solidify everything. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The world has no existence whatsoever outside of the human imagination. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- This forest silence improves anyone. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Motorcycle maintenance gets frustrating. Angering. Infuriating. That’s what makes it interesting. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn’t any other test. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Definitions are the foundation of reason. You can’t reason without them. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Grades really cover up failure to teach. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Overall goals must be scaled down in importance and immediate goals must be scaled up. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Science grows by its mu answers more than by its yes or no answers. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Your common sense is nothing more than the voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a thirty-thousand-page menu and no food. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- What makes his world so hard to see clearly is not its strangeness but its usualness. Familiarity can blind you too. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom. This is Zen. This is my motorcycle maintenance. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- To the ocean. That sounds right. Where the waves roll in slowly and there’s always a roar and you can’t fall anywhere. You’re already there. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
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