Take a photo of a barcode or cover
chelseanoack 's review for:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
by Robert M. Pirsig
This book wavered for me of sometimes being exceptionally insightful and then being exceptionally dense. I felt like the philosophical tangents were lost in the plot line, or maybe I missed something. I think I'm still bothered by the ending. I thought it would be this dramatic break though, that we would see he was in a mental hospital or that his dreams would make sense. But instead, you're left wondering if this bandaid over the entire thing is just another dream or a quick way to wrap everything up. Maybe if I took an English course with someone who has written their thesis on this book, I'd enjoy it, or look back on it with nostalgia. With that said, there were some quotes I really liked!
** “If you get careless or go romanticizing scientific information, giving it a flourish here and there, Nature will soon make a complete fool out of you.” **
- “The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
- “You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”
- “The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.”
- “The TV scientist who mutters sadly, "The experiment is a failure; we have failed to achieve what we had hoped for," is suffering mainly from a bad script writer. An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results. An experiment is a failure only when it also fails adequately to test the hypothesis in question, when the data it produces don't prove anything one way or another.”
** “If you get careless or go romanticizing scientific information, giving it a flourish here and there, Nature will soon make a complete fool out of you.” **
- “The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
- “You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”
- “The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.”
- “The TV scientist who mutters sadly, "The experiment is a failure; we have failed to achieve what we had hoped for," is suffering mainly from a bad script writer. An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results. An experiment is a failure only when it also fails adequately to test the hypothesis in question, when the data it produces don't prove anything one way or another.”