{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/technology-is-blamed",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/technology-is-blamed.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/technology-is-blamed.md",
  "id": "7a58b06e-9d05-4f73-a6b1-6d66fe18df3a",
  "slug": "technology-is-blamed",
  "text": "Technology is blamed for a lot of this loneliness, since the loneliness is certainly associated with the newer technological devices—TV, jets, freeways and so on—but I hope it's been made plain that the real evil isn't the objects of technology but the tendency of technology to isolate people into lonely attitudes of objectivity. It's the objectivity, the dualistic way of looking at things underlying technology, that produces the evil. That's why I went to so much trouble to show how technology could be used to destroy the evil. A person who knows how to fix motorcycles—with Quality—is less likely to run short of friends than one who doesn't. And they aren't going to see him as some kind of object either. Quality destroys objectivity every time.",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert M. Pirsig",
    "slug": "robert-m-pirsig",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance",
    "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance"
  },
  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
  "chapter_parent": null,
  "page": null,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "loneliness",
      "slug": "loneliness",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness"
    },
    {
      "name": "technology",
      "slug": "technology",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology"
    },
    {
      "name": "quality",
      "slug": "quality",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/quality"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:33",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "id": "fc0c4443-d6bb-40c8-96d0-40ea93e6ff28",
      "slug": "uncle-toms-cabin",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/uncle-toms-cabin",
      "text": "Uncle Tom's Cabin was no literary masterpiece but it was a culture-bearing book. It came at a time when the entire culture was about to reject slavery. People seized upon it as a portrayal of their own new values and it became an overwhelming success.\n\nThe success of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance seems the result of this culture-bearing phenomenon. The involuntary shock treatment described here is against the law today. It is a violation of human liberty. The culture has changed.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "literature",
          "slug": "literature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature"
        },
        {
          "name": "culture",
          "slug": "culture",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture"
        },
        {
          "name": "slavery",
          "slug": "slavery",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Afterword_(1984)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:34"
    },
    {
      "id": "e3bcfc9b-8339-4787-8fef-76005d011acc",
      "slug": "trials-never-end",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/trials-never-end",
      "text": "Trials never end, of course. Unhappiness and misfortune are bound to occur as long as people live, but there is a feeling now, that was not here before, and is not just on the surface of things, but penetrates all the way through: We've won it. It's going to get better now. You can sort of tell these things.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "suffering",
          "slug": "suffering",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering"
        },
        {
          "name": "hope",
          "slug": "hope",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:34"
    },
    {
      "id": "cf965997-b2f4-4788-970b-463c46178476",
      "slug": "quality-is-better",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/quality-is-better",
      "text": "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 from 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.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "conformity",
          "slug": "conformity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity"
        },
        {
          "name": "authority figures",
          "slug": "authority-figures",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authority-figures"
        },
        {
          "name": "quality",
          "slug": "quality",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/quality"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:34"
    }
  ]
}
