Quality is better seen up at the timberline than here obscured by smoky windows and oceans of words, and he sees that what he is talking about can never really be accepted here because to see it one has to be free of social authority and this is an institution of social authority. Quality for sheep is what the shepherd says. And if you take a sheep and put it up at the timberline at night when the wind is roaring, that sheep will be panicked half to death and will call and call until the shepherd comes, or comes the wolf.
Robert M. PirsigThe Buddha takes no position on gods, he suggests they may exist or they may not, but either way you can live a moral life.
Robert M. PirsigA person filled with gumption doesnโt sit about stewing about things. Heโs at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see whatโs up the track and meeting it when it comes. Thatโs gumption. If youโre going to repair a motorcycle, an adequate supply of gumption is the first and most important tool. If you havenโt got that you might as well gather up all the other tools and put them away, because they wonโt do you any good.
Robert M. PirsigIn the high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty.
Robert M. Pirsig