John Cage

We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life.

It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of 'culture.'

The first question I ask myself when something doesnt seem to be beautiful is why do I feel its not beautiful And very shortly you discover there is no reason.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

We are not committed to this or that. We are committed to the nothing in between whether we know it or not.

Each something is a celebration of the nothing that supports it.

There 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.

With just one musician, you can really do an unlimited number of things on the inside of the piano, if you have at your disposal an exploded keyboard.

There 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.

We need not destroy the past. It is gone.

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.

If someone says can't, that shows you what to do.

Good music can act as a guide to good living.

We carry our homes within us which enables us to fly.

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

The grand thing about the human mind is that it can turn its own tables and see meaninglessness as ultimate meaning.

The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.

Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.

When we separate music from life we get art.

It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of "culture."

I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.

It's useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.

A meal without mushrooms is like a day without rain.

Music is edifying, for from time to time it sets the soul in operation.