The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.
Robert M. PirsigRead
The bones and flesh and legal statistics are the garments worn by the personality, not the other way around.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that our true selves are not defined by our physical or legal identities, but rather by our personality and essence.
In this quote, Robert M. Pirsig suggests that our physical form and societal labels are merely superficial coverings that do not represent our true identity. The 'bones and flesh' symbolize the physical aspect of a person, while 'legal statistics' represent societal classifications, such as age or status. Pirsig argues that these elements should not define us; instead, it is our individual personality and inner qualities that truly characterize who we are. This perspective invites a deeper exploration of identity and existence beyond the material realm.
Themes
IdentityPersonalityPhilosophySelfExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of self.
More from Robert M. Pirsig
All quotes βWhen analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.
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The Buddha resides as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain.
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It's better not to see than to see wrongly.
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The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I'm looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.
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You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.
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I don't like people who speak or think in terms of gaining anybody's confidence. If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others, only their rational perception. The person who craves a moral blank check of that kind, has dishonest intentions, whether he admits it to himself or not.
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I knelt and prayed, and the strongest truth came over me. Didn't matter if God in his heaven was a Catholic or a Protestant God, or the God of the Hindus. What mattered was something deeper and older and more powerful than any such image - it was a concept of goodness based upon the affirmation of life, the turning away from destruction, from the perverse, from man using and abusing man. It was the affirmation of the human and the natural.
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We do not celebrate the death of our enemies.
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Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!
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