Skip to content
quotesby

They had made the mistake of thinking of a personality as some sort of possession, like a suit of clothes, which a person wears. But apart from a personality what is there? Some bones and flesh. A collection of legal statistics, perhaps, but surely no person. The bones and flesh and legal statistics are the garments worn by the personality, not the other way around.

Robert M. Pirsig#14

PhilosophyMindBodyIdentityLawPersonality

About this quote

What does it mean?
Personality is not a possession like clothing; the body and legal identity are the garments that the personality wears.
In plain terms
Our bodies are like clothes for the mind.
What can you take from it?
Separate identity from physical form.

Where it applies

  • discussing legal responsibility
  • exploring self-concept

Putting it to work

  • use language that distinguishes mind from body
  • consider personality as non‑material

Questions to consider

  • What defines a person beyond the body?
  • Can personality exist without a physical host?

Another view

It can be hard to treat personality as distinct when legal systems tie them together.

More from Robert M. Pirsig

  1. It took me more than a week to deduce from the evidence around me that everything before my waking up was a dream and everything afterward was reality. There w…

    Permalink to quote #13
  2. Talk about rationality can get very confusing unless the things with which rationality deals are also included.

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he's insane, which is not to see him at all. To see him you must…

    Permalink to quote #12

Related quotes

  1. The body is the outermost layer of the mind.

    David MitchellDavid Mitchell quote #7
  2. We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.

    AristotleAristotle quote #161
  3. The observer is the observed.

    Jiddu KrishnamurtiJiddu Krishnamurti quote #1