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
(What makes his world so hard to see clearly is not its strangeness but its usualness).Familiarity can blind you too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Familiarity with the ordinary can obscure our understanding of the world.
This quote by Robert M. Pirsig suggests that what often makes our perception of the world unclear is not its oddities or strangeness, but rather the mundane and everyday aspects we take for granted. When we become overly accustomed to our surroundings, we may fail to see their true nature and significance, highlighting the idea that familiarity can lead to a kind of blindness that prevents deeper appreciation and understanding.
Themes
FamiliarityPerceptionBlindnessUnderstandingOrdinary
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about why we overlook simple joys in life, this quote can serve as a reminder.
More from Robert M. Pirsig
All quotes βWhen analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.
Robert M. PirsigRead
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.
Robert M. PirsigRead
It's better not to see than to see wrongly.
Robert M. PirsigRead
The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I'm looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.
Robert M. PirsigRead
You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.
Robert M. PirsigRead
Similar quotes
Christianity is not some ideal toward which we ought always to strive even though the ideal is out of reach. Christianity is not a series of slogans that sum up our beliefs.
Stanley HauerwasRead
I haven't any language weak enough to depict the weakness of my spiritual life. If I weakened it enough it would cease to be language at all. As when you try to turn the gas-ring a little lower still, and it merely goes out.
C. S. LewisRead
I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.
Katharine HepburnRead
Don't order any black things. Rejoice in his memory; and be radiant: leave grief to the children. Wear violet and purple. Be patient with the poor people who will snivel: they don't know; and they think they will live for ever, which makes death a division instead of a bond.
George Bernard ShawRead
I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That's just not part of my religious makeup.
Barack ObamaRead
People go to Africa and confirm what they already have in their heads and so they fail to see what is there in front of them.
Chinua AchebeRead