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The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

John Cage

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John Cage
Age: 79 †
Born: 1912
Born: September 5
Died: 1992
Died: August 2
Composer
Illustrator
Music Theorist
Musician
Musicologist
Painter
Philosopher
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
LA
California
John Milton Cage Jr.
John Milton Cage
Jr.
John Milton
Jr. Cage
J. C.
First
Beauty
Something
Asks
Think
Doesn
Thinking
Reality
Beautiful
Shortly
Seems
Discover
Reason
Seem
Firsts
Question

More quotes by John Cage

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...we make our lives by what we love.
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There 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 laughter. Don’t have to mean anything that is, in order to give us deep pleasure.
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When we separate music from life we get is art.
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To accept whatever comes, regardless of the consequences, is to be unafraid.
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There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.
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Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens.
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Each something is a celebration of the nothing that supports it.
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People paying attention to vibratory activity, not in reaction to a fixed ideal performance, but each time attentively to how it happens to be this time, not necessarily two times the same. A music that transports the listener to the moment where he is.
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I don't need sound to talk to me.
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We're breaking all of the rules, even our own rules, and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.
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Everyday is a beautiful day, Everything is pleasing
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Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
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It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.
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Why do you not do as I do? Letting go of your thoughts as though they were the cold ashes of a long dead fire?
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There's no such thing as silence. Something is always happening that makes a sound.
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So somebody has talent? So what? Dime a dozen. And we're overpopulated. Actually we have more food than we have people and more art. We've gotten to the point of burning food. When will we begin to burn our art?
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What right do I have to be in the woods, if the woods are not in me.
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We only hear what we listen for.
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An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.
John Cage
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It's useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.
John Cage