The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon.

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.

I did not want to write one of those sequels that famous first-book authors get into where everybody says, 'Oh yeah.'

Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.

Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.

We do need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance, and old-fashioned gumption. We really do.

If you run from technology, it will chase you.

It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling.

Even in the presence of others he was completely alone.

Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a thirty thousand page menu, and no food.