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
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Portrait adapted from
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Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Robert Maynard Pirsig
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Robert Pirsig
When you live in the shadow of insanity, the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event.
It took me more than a week to deduce from the evidence around me that everything before my waking up was a dream and everything afterward was reality. There was no basis for distinguishing the two other than the growing pile of new events that seemed to argue against the drunk experience. Little things appeared, like the locked door, the outside of which I could never remember seeing. And a slip of paper from the probate court telling me that some person was committed as insane. Did they mean me?
I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it.
