Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

by Robert M. Pirsig

You always suppress momentary anger at something you deeply and permanently hate.

The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha—which is to demean oneself.

“Mass hypnosis. In a very orthodox form known as ‘education.’”

A classical understanding sees the world primarily as underlying form itself. A romantic understanding sees it primarily in terms of immediate appearance.

But to tear down a factory or to revolt against a government or to avoid repair of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible.

I walk up the long main street in the gathering dusk and feel the presence of the mountains even though we talk about other things. I feel happy to be here, and still a little sad to be here too. Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.

The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality.

Quality is the continuing stimulus which our environment puts upon us to create the world in which we live. All of it. Every last bit of it.