Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

But to tear down a factory or to revolt against a government or to avoid repair of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic thought itself, rationality itself, and if

Critique of Pure Reason,

The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.

Of course she’s not going to get mad at that faucet, I thought. You always suppress momentary anger at something you deeply and permanently hate.

A classical understanding sees the world primarily as underlying form itself. A romantic understanding sees it primarily in terms of immediate appearance.

What had to be seen was that the Chris I missed so badly was not an object but a pattern, and that although the pattern included the flesh and blood of Chris, that was not all there was to it. The pattern was larger than Chris and myself, and related us in ways that neither of us understood completely and neither of us was in complete control of. N

The way to resolve the conflict is to break down the barriers of dualistic thought that prevent a real understanding of what technology is—not an exploitation of nature, but a fusion of nature and the human spirit into a new kind of creation that transcends both.

When you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it. And even if you do it’s a hollow victory.

The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality.

You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in.