John Cage Quotes

And when in doubt, be extreme.

One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; the extreme thing is generally the true thing.

Some great minds become great by turning the rubble of an exploded paradigm into something consistent and meaningful. Others become great by laying the gunpowder, grain by grain. Every important revolution needs both kinds of minds to complete itself.

We have to open our minds and be ready for the changes.

I think a critical part of being successful in our industry is having a beginner's mind

An opened mind will eventually lead to a more well rounded artist and this will thus heightenen his or her level of professionalism.

Don't be afraid to change the model.

A great deal of phenomenal experience has fostered in me a flexibility of the mind and imagination that some might call madness

Don't let tradition paralyze your mind. Be receptive to new ideas. Be experimental. Try new approaches. Be progressive in everything you do.

The first-rate mind is always curious, compassionate, original, and pessimistic.

Let's say I've directed that [writing] energy into writing my latest book but suddenly, I really want to write about an onion. I don't say to myself, "No, you have stay on the subject," because I know that the longer I stay on the subject the more boring I get. So, if my mind wants to write about an onion, it might be a deeper way to go into what I'm working on, even though it might seem irrelevant. This is how I've learned to follow my mind.

Think different in order to change the rules. By definition, if you don't change the rules you aren't a revolutionary, and if you don't think different, you won't change the rules.

In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.

#1 Never Get Used to Anything.

You can't stand still on one point for your entire life.

Keep an open mind and be ready to change and adapt to the situation. Don't ask reality to conform to your blueprint, but transform your blueprint to adapt to reality.

Everyone has to learn to think differently, bigger, to open to possibilities.

It's always difficult when you want to do something really new, and you also want it to reach the masses, because the majority of people want to see what they've already seen before, or that they're already familiar with. To open the majority of peoples' minds to something new is difficult.

Keep your mind open to change all the time. Welcome it. Court it. It is only by examining and reexamining your opinions and ideas that you can progress.

We want to be open-minded enough to accept radial new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don't want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out.

RADICALISM, n. The conservatism of to-morrow injected into the affairs of to-day.

Strong communities ... embrace change. New discoveries require us to think differently and approach things differently, to think anew.

I try to leave some space in my mind for things to surprise me or change my mind, I think that's important.

Great genial power, one would almost say, consists in not being original at all; in being altogether receptive; in letting the world do all, and suffering the spirit of the hour to pass unobstructed through the mind.

A great mind must be androgynous.