Robert M. Pirsig Quotes

Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end.

An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.

Intellect is neither practical nor impractical; it is extra-practical.

On Pragmatism: It's all very well in theory but it doesn't work in practice

The ultimate, most holy form of theory is action.

Knowledge has no value except that which can be gained from its application toward some worthy end.

As soon as the theoretician attempts to take account of so-called 'utility' and 'reality' instead of absolute truth, his work will cease to be a polar star of seeking humanity and instead will become a prescription for everyday life.

In philosophy, the principles are more interesting than the examples. In literature, the examples are more interesting than the principles.

[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands, nothing being omitted.

Mathematics commands all my respect, but I have no use for engines.

... mathematics is absolutely necessary and useful to the other sciences.

All theories are legitimate, no matter. What matters is what you do with them.

Idealism leads to realism if it is strictly thought out.

The problems of philosophy and the systems designed to solve them are formulated in terms which tend to refer, not to the realm of actuality, but to the realms of possibility and necessity: to what might be and what must be, rather than to what is.

The first business of philosophy is to account for things as they are; and till our theories will do this, they ought not to be the ground of any practical conclusion.

The above proposition is occasionally useful.

Clearly, I am not an anarchist. Philosophically, I might be, but I think in practical terms.

To use is necessary. And if you can't be used, then you're useless.

I think philosophy is all about lived experience, which is to say life in the streets, life in a variety of different contexts.

Some are created for beauty, and some for use; and there are some which one can do without altogether.

It is not difficult to know a thing; what is difficult is to know how to use what you know

Metaphysics is a cobweb that the mind weaves around things.

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

The bearings of this observation lays in the application of it.

Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made.