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 dial… - Robert M. Pirsig

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Engraved portrait of Robert M. Pirsig, facing right

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.

English
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About Robert M. Pirsig

Robert Maynard Pirsig (6 September 1928 – 24 April 2017) was an American philosopher and novelist, most famous for his novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in which he proposed what has become known as his Metaphysics of Quality (MoQ).

Biography information from Wikiquote · Portrait adapted from Wikimedia Commons, Ian Glendinning, en:User:IanGlendinning (CC BY)

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Robert Maynard Pirsig Robert Pirsig

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Additional quotes by Robert M. Pirsig

Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster. Now we’re paying the price. When you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it.

Care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristic of quality.

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