Top 10 Quotes from Robert M. Pirsig’s ‘Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’

By Bob Hill - July 15, 2015

“The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon.”
“In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”
“The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn’t any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it’s right. If it disturbs you it’s wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed.”
“I look over my shoulder for one last view of the gorge. Like looking down at the bottom of the ocean. People spend their entire lives at those lower altitudes without any awareness that this high country exists.”
“Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.”
“Some things you miss because they’re so tiny you overlook them. But some things you don’t see because they’re so huge.”
“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”
“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
“You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge.”
“The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself.”