Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
- don’t hurry things that matter (34)
- reading Walden to his son: read a line or two and then just chat about it (49)
- any system is defined by the knife that cuts it up into smaller parts. Therefore, it is just as important to focus on the “knife” we use to understand something as the something itself (92)
- “Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.” (381)
- “Or if he takes whatever dull job he’s stuck with—and they are all, sooner or later, dull—and, just to keep himself amused, starts to look for options of Quality, and secretly pursues these options, just for their own sake, thus making an art out of what he is doing, he’s likely to discover that he becomes a much more interesting person and much less of an object to the people around him because his Quality decisions change him too. And not only the job and him, but others too because the Quality tends to fan out like waves. The Quality job he didn’t think anyone was going to see is seen, and the person who sees it feels a little better because of it, and is likely to pass that feeling on to others, and in that way the Quality tends to keep on going.” (460)