Robert Maynard Pirsig (1928–2017) was an American writer and philosopher. He was the author of the philosophical novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974) and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991.)
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Pirsig studied at the University of Minnesota and attended Benares Hindu University in India, where he studied philosophy. He worked as a technical writer and instructor of English before being hospitalized for mental illness in the early 1960s.
Pirsig’s first and bestselling book was the partly autobiographical Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974.) This lightly fictionalized recounting of a 17-day motorcycle trip he took with his young son Chris and two other people in 1968 explores the place of technology in the modern world and grapples with age-old philosophical conundrums.
Pirsig’s long-awaited sequel was Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1992;) the story traced a sailboat journey taken by two fictitious characters along America’s eastern coast. It expanded on his philosophical system known as Metaphysics of Quality.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Robert M. Pirsig
That’s the classical mind at work, runs fine inside but looks dingy on the surface.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Mind
Technology presumes there’s just one right way to do things and there never is.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Technology
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
Topics: Self-improvement, Progress
Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Failure
Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Quality
The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn’t any other test”
—Robert M. Pirsig
The solutions all are simple—after you have arrived at them. But they’re simple only when you know already what they are.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Truth
Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a thirty thousand page menu, and no food.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Philosophy
The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality. The tree that you are aware of intellectually, because of that small time lag, is always in the past and therefore is always unreal. Any intellectually conceived object is always in the past and therefore unreal. Reality is always the moment of vision before the intellectualization takes place. There is no other reality.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Realism
Even though quality cannot be defined, you know what quality is.
—Robert M. Pirsig
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.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Scientists, Science
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Self-reliance, Confidence
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. But of course, without the top you can’t have any sides. It’s the top that defines the sides.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Topics: Success, The Past, Future, The Present, Past
Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. if you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you’re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an end, but a unique event in itself.
—Robert M. Pirsig
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Russell Hoban American Author
Robert Anton Wilson American Polymath
George Steiner American Culture Critic
Charles Mingus American Jazz Bassist, Composer
Marie Chapian American Christian Writer
James D. Watson American Biologist
Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
Stanley Kubrick American Film Director
Thomas Wolfe American Novelist
Louise Erdrich American Children’s Books Writer