John CageIt is not futile to do what we do. We wake up with energy and we do something. And we make, of course, failures and we make mistakes, but we sometimes get glimpses of what we migh… ▶351Time
John CageI am trying to be unfamiliar with what I'm doing. ✨ John Cage (2010). Silence: Lectures and Writings, p.6, Wesleyan University Press351Politics
John CageThere is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. ✨ John C… ▶341TimeTruth
John CageGet yourself out of whatever cage you find yourself in.341Time
John CageThe function of Art is to imitate Nature in her manner of operation. Our understanding of her manner of operation&Rdquo; changes according to advances in the sciences.375Hope
John CageThe emotions - love, mirth, the heroic, wonder, tranquility, fear, anger, sorrow, disgust - are in the audience.342DeathLoveSadness
John CageAll great art is a form of complaint342Humor
John CageLook at everything. Don't close your eyes to the world around you. Look and become curious and interested in what there is to see.364Life
John CageIf you don't have enough time to accomplish something, consider the work finished once it's begun.331ReflectionTime
John CageAs far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency. ✨ Interview with John Corbett, 1989.333Thought
John CageI can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. ✨ Conversing with Cage. Book by Richard Kostelanetz, 1988.377HumanityReadingThought
John CageArt's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens. ✨ Visual Art: To Sober and Quiet the Mind. Book by John Cage, 2007.312ReadingThought
John CageA 'mistake' is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically is. ✨ Pierre Boulez, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, John Cage, Robert Samuels (1995). The Boulez-Cage Corr… ▶378Humanity
John CageThere was a German philosopher who is very well known, his name was Immanuel Kant, and he said there are two things that don’t have to mean anything, one is music and the other is… ▶334Humor
John CageWhen I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking. And talking about his feelings, or about his ideas of relationships. But when I hear traffic, the sound of … ▶291LoveThought
John CageFood, one assumes, provides nourishment; but Americans eat it fully aware that small amounts of poison have been added to improve its appearance and delay its putrefaction. … ▶335Truth
John CageWhether I make them or not, there are always sounds to be heard and all of them are excellent. ✨ John Cage, James Joyce (1982). Roaratorio: ein irischer Circus über Finnegan… ▶357Death
John CageMusic is edifying, for from time to time it sets the soul in operation. ✨ Pierre Boulez, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, John Cage, Robert Samuels (1995). The Boulez-Cage Corresponden… ▶346Time
John CageEverything we do is music. (Classical Composer)(From: 4'33)346Humor
John CageNot one sound fears the silence that extinguishes it. And no silence exists that is not pregnant with sound.281Thought
John CageOne need not fear for the future of music.359HopeTime
John CageThe purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences. ✨ Music Age.348Thought
John CageThe white paintings came first; my silent piece came later. ✨ John Cage (2010). Silence: Lectures and Writings, p.112, Wesleyan University Press359Sadness
John CageArt is sort of an experimental station in which one tries out living. ✨ John Cage (2010). Silence: Lectures and Writings, p.39, Wesleyan University Press315Life
John CageCombine nursing homes with nursery schools. Bring very old and very young together: they interest one another. ✨ John Cage (2010). M: Writings ’67–’72, p.22, Wesleyan Univer… ▶338Life
John CageA mind that is interested in changing...is interested precisely in the things that are at extremes. I'm certainly like that. Unless we go to extremes, we won't get anywhere.272Thought
John CageTo accept whatever comes, regardless of the consequences, is to be unafraid.349Sadness
John CageIf you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of e… ▶316Life
John CageEveryday is a beautiful day, Everything is pleasing294Politics
John CageMy favorite music is the music I haven't yet heard283Reading
