Food, 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.
John CageRead
I am trying to check my habits of seeing, to counter them for the sake of greater freshness. I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I'm doing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of altering one's perspective to experience life more vividly.
John Cage expresses a desire to change his habitual ways of observing the world in order to regain a sense of freshness and novelty in his experiences. By striving to be unfamiliar with his own actions and surroundings, he aims to break free from routine and engage more deeply with life, suggesting that a shift in perspective can lead to a more profound appreciation of everyday moments.
Themes
HabitsFreshnessPerspectiveExperienceNovelty
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity, one might quote this to encourage artists to seek new ways of seeing their work.
More from John Cage
All quotes βWhich is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
John CageRead
There was a German philosopher who is very well known, his name was Immanuel Kant, and he said there are two things that donβt have to mean anything, one is music and the other is laughter. Donβt have to mean anything that is, in order to give us deep pleasure.
John CageRead
I remember loving sound before I ever took a music lesson. And so we make our lives by what we love.
John CageRead
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
John CageRead
People who aren't artists often feel that artists are inspired. But if you work at your art you don't have time to be inspired.
John CageRead
Similar quotes
When the last red man shall have perished from the earth and his memory among the white men shall have become a myth, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe. The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless.
Chief SeattleRead
A country without a memory is a country of madmen.
George SantayanaRead
Reputation is favorable notoriety as distinguished from fame, which is permanent approval of great deeds and noble thoughts by the best intelligence of mankind.
George William CurtisRead
The human condition comprehends more than the condition under which life has been given to man. Men are conditioned beings because everything they come in contact with turns immediately into a condition of their existence. The world in which the vita activa spends itself consists of things produced by human activities; but the things that owe their existence exclusively to men nevertheless constantly condition their human makers.
Hannah ArendtRead
A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure, and to another all the burdens of work, dooms both classes to spiritual sterility.
Lewis MumfordRead
The day a woman can walk freely on the roads at night, that day we can say that India has achieved independence
Mahatma GandhiRead