Robert M. Pirsig Quotes about Understanding

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Stuckness shouldn't be avoided. It's the physic predecessor of all real understanding.

Stuckness shouldn't be avoided. It's the physic predecessor of all real understanding.

Robert M. Pirsig

Real, Understanding, Avoided

Now he began to see for the first time the unbelievable magnitude of what man, when he gained power to understand and rule the world in terms of dialectic truths, had lost. He had built empires of scientific capability to manipulate the phenomena of nature into enormous manifestations of his own dreams of power and wealth...but for this he had exchanged an empire of understanding of equal magnitude: an understanding of what it is to be a part of the world, and not an enemy of it.

Robert M. Pirsig

Dream, Men, Understanding

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Book by Robert M. Pirsig (Ch. 29), 1974.

Quality... you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is.

Robert M. Pirsig

Understanding, Quality, Zen Motorcycle Maintenance

This inner peace of mind occurs on three levels of understanding. Physical quietness seems the easiest to achieve, although there are levels and levels of this too, as attested by the ability of Hindu mystics to live buried alive for many days. Mental quietness, in which one has no wandering thoughts at all, seems more difficult, but can be achieved. But value quietness, in which one has no wandering desires at all but simply performs the acts of his life without desire, that seems the hardest.

Robert M. Pirsig

Understanding, Inner Peace, Mind