About This Quote

About Robert M. Pirsig

Robert M. Pirsig was a 20th-century American writer and philosopher. Robert Maynard Pirsig was an American writer and philosopher. He is the author of the philosophical books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974) and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991), and he co-authored On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Selected and Unpublished Writings (2022) along with his wife and editor, Wendy Pirsig. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Nature — Appreciation for the natural world and our place within it
  • Philosophy — Deep thoughts on existence, knowledge, and the nature of reality

More quotes by Robert M. Pirsig

“To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.”
— Robert M. Pirsig
living purpose

“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
inspirational truth zen

“Hed no longer be a grade-motivated person. Hed be a knowledge-motivated person. He would need no external pushing to learn. His push would come from inside. Hed be a free man. He wouldnt need a lot...”
— Robert M. Pirsig
how-to-get-motivated learning motivation students

“In the high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty...”
— Robert M. Pirsig
philosophy

“What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua...that's the only name I can think of for it...like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are n...”
— Robert M. Pirsig
inspirational philosophy

“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, f...”
— Robert M. Pirsig
philosophy
View all quotes by Robert M. Pirsig →

Related Quotes

“to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.”
— Cassandra Clare, City of Bones
destruction love

“If you want to know what God thinks about any situation in the world, think like a parent.”
— Suzy Kassem
destruction faith father god

“If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.”
— Carl Sagan
destruction inspirational truth

“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!”
— John Muir
mountains nature

“The mountains are intimations of transcendence, which he is now free to pursue, and the walking writes messages in every cell of his body, telling him that he is not locked inside a cement box, nor...”
— Michael D. O'Brien, Island of the World
mountains nature transcendence

“I send thee, love, this upland flower I foundWhile wandering lonely with o'erclouded heart,Hid in a grey recess of rocky groundAmong the misty mountains far apart;And then I heard the wild wind's l...”
— Henry Stephens Salt, On Cambrian and Cumbrian Hills Pilgrimages to Snowdon and Scafell
mountains nature walking

“Today I want to belong. I want to feel safe and at home. I want to be aware of what it is like simply to be, without defenses or desires. I will appreciate the flow of life for what it is-my own tr...”
— Deepak Chopra
nature prayer spirituality

“Nature reflects the moods of the wizard.”
— Deepak Chopra
nature spirituality

“My calling ties me to no office, makes me no man's slave, compels me to no action which my soul condemns. It sets me free from town life, which I loathe; and allows me to breathe clean air, to exer...”
— J.H.B Peel
nature outside work