Robert M. Pirsig Quotes

The misunderstanding of passion and reason, as if the latter were an independent entity and not rather a system of relations between various passions and desires; and as if every passion did not possess its quantum of reason.

I try to keep a balance between conceptional or intellectual comprehension and emotional understanding.

Reason without passion is sterile, but passion without reason is hysteria.

Every wave of passion restrained is a balance in your favor. It is therefore good policy not to return anger for anger, as with all true morality.

In all human affairs, the wisest course is to be passionate about the role of reason and reasonable about the role of passion.

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may livethrough its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

There is no human being who having both passions and thoughts does not think in consequences of his passions--does not find images rising in his mind which soothe the passion with hope or sting it with dread.

Your mind must control, but you must have heart . . . . Give your feeling free.

For Reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and Passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

I think you have to use your eyes as well as your emotion, and one without the other just doesn't work

Make your mind learn its way around the heart.

When your heart and your mind are engaged, you cannot go wrong.

To go out of your mind once a day is tremendously important, because by going out of your mind you come to your senses. And if you stay in your mind all of the time, you are over rational, in other words you are like a very rigid bridge which because it has no give; no craziness in it, is going to be blown down by the first hurricane.

With the tough mind, there must also be a tender heart.

Societies would _not_ be better off if everyone were like Mr Spock, all rationality and no emotion. Instead, a balance - a teaming up of the internal rivals - is optimal for brains. ... Some balance of the emotional and rational systems is needed, and that balance may already be optimized by natural selection in human brains.

We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.

Intelligence comes into being when the mind, the heart and the body are really harmonious.

In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels

Pity is an emotion that can get you killed. The only thing more dangerous is blind hate, and maybe love.

Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel?

Your mind can be your enemy or friend. If you always follow your heart, your mind will feel neglected. If you follow only your mind, your heart will never forgive you. Never ignore your conscience, yet always be conscious of reason. Make your heart and mind friends and you will have peace of mind throughout life's seasons.

When mind, body, and spirit are in harmony, happiness is the natural result.

When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.

It's all emotion. But there's nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are on vacation, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are happy, we are not [rational]. In fact, in more cases than not, when we are rational, we're actually unhappy. Emotion is good; passion is good. Being into what we're into, provided that it's a healthy pursuit, it's a good thing.

A Compassionate state of mind brings inner peace, and therefore a healthier body.