When spontaneity and individuality and really good original stuff occurred in a classroom it was in spite of the instruction, not because of it. This seemed to make sense. He was ready to resign. Teaching dull conformity to hateful students wasn’t what he wanted to do.

Robert M. Pirsig
About This Quote

John Searle in his book, “The Construction of Social Reality” argues that when we are talking about how we come to have beliefs, including our belief in the existence of free will, then the truth is that they are false beliefs. Those who want to believe in free will are doing so because they have been socialized to do so. Socialization is not a passive process whereby society tells us what to do. Rather it is an active process whereby the individuals in society are actively engaged in shaping the way they view the world by the things that they say and do.

Source: Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."" Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes,... - Jane Austen

  2. What it means to be human is to bring up your children in safety, educate them, keep them healthy, teach them how to care for themselves and others, allow them to develop in their own way among adults who are sane and responsibile, who know... - Jeanette Winterson

  3. The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know. - Michel Legrand

  4. Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire - it tells you how to desire. - Unknown

  5. Being vegan is easy. Are there social pressures that encourage you to continue to eat, wear, and use animal products? Of course there are. But in a patriarchal, racist, homophobic, and ableist society, there are social pressures to participate and engage in sexism, racism, homophobia,... - Gary L. Francione

More Quotes By Robert M. Pirsig
  1. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.

  2. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth, " and so it goes away. Puzzling.

  3. In the high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty...

  4. What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua..that's the only name I can think of for it..like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are now in, an old-time series of popular talks intended to...

  5. There is a perennial classical question that asks which part of the motorcycle, which grain of sand in which pile, is the Buddha. Obviously to ask that question is to look in the wrong direction, for the Buddha is everywhere. But just as obviously to...

Related Topics