ANSWER
Pirsig’s idea that Quality is the primordial source of all distinctions means that Quality is the foundational, pre-linguistic reality from which all categories, concepts, and dualities (like subject/object, mind/matter) emerge. Before we label, analyze, or think about the world, we experience it as an undivided flow of value or excellence—this is Quality.
Language and thought, in this view, are secondary tools that arise to describe and organize this raw experience. They create distinctions (e.g., “good” vs. “bad,” “self” vs. “other”) to make sense of Quality, but these distinctions are not inherent in Quality itself. Quality is the undifferentiated ground from which all intellectual and linguistic structures are derived. In essence, Quality is the source of meaning and value, and our conceptual frameworks are attempts to capture and communicate it.