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Man has a tendency to try to give clear reasons to be rational, but often you can see how all those reasons are not convincing and turn out to be a big nonsense.

Ai Weiwei

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Ai Weiwei
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: May 18
Architect
Consultant
Contemporary Artist
Designer
Film Director
Human Rights Activist
Painter
Photographer
Sculptor
Social Activist
Peking
Wei-wei Ai
Weiwei Ai
Ai Wei Wei
Bigs
Tendency
Often
Tendencies
Give
Nonsense
Reason
Rational
Giving
Reasons
Trying
Turn
Men
Clear
Turns
Convincing

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.
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No outdoor sports can be more elegant than throwing stones at autocracy no melees can be more exciting than those in cyberspace.
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Freedom of speech implies the world isn’t defined. It is meaningful when people are allowed to see the world their way.
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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We see the tendency in the world to criticise democracy and sometimes even to say that authoritarian countries like China are more efficient. That is very short-sighted. China looks efficient only because it can sacrifice most people's rights. This is not something the west should be happy about.
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I never think any place is better than others.
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I have to find a place for my own. I have to search for my own happiness.
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Individual that means he has his own special way to communicate, which creates the form of him. In the information age, this expression and communication has become so different.
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The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
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When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.
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It doesn't matter where I am - China will stay in me. I don't know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.
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I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.
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If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger.
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[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
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Destroy or build. Crazy or noncrazy. I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much.
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A society is healthy only when it allows its members to discuss their thoughts openly. This is also the only way that a society can gather consensus, let everyone express his or her wish, and foster creativity.
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Had I to create a name for these times, I’d say it is the age of craziness
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It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
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To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
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I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable — how we decide what is valuable.
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