Chris Via’s Reviews > Lila: An Inquiry into Morals > Status Update

"What's good [in life] is freedom from domination by ANY static pattern, but that freedom doesn't have to be obtained by the destruction of the patterns themselves" (301).

"Nature tells us only what our culture predisposes us to hear" (299).

"What distinguishes the Victorian culture from the culture of today is that the Victorians were the last people to believe the patterns of intellect or subordinate to patterns of society.... The new culture that has emerged is the first in history to believe that patterns of society must be subordinate to patterns of intellect " (266).

"First you sense the high or low quality, then you find reasons for it, not the other way around" (251).

"...which was where the book [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance] started--as a little monograph on how to teach English composition" (219).

"One you understand something well enough, you don't need to run from it" (219).

"There is no direct scientific connection between mind and matter.... Our intellectual description of nature is always culturally derived" (155).

"Trying to explain social moral patterns in terms of inorganic chemistry patterns is like trying to explain the plot of a word-processor(-produced) novel in terms of the computer's electronics" (152).

"...since that which does not change cannot live...[a] tension between these two forces [static and dynamic] is needed to continue the evolution of life" (121).