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

fear ideas novelty

About John Cage

Portrait of John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer, visual artist and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as...

More quotations from John Cage

[My aunt] was doing her laundry. She turned to me and said, "You know, I love this machine much more than I do your Uncle Walter.

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 you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.

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

If you think something is boring, try doing it for two minutes. If you still think it's boring, try it for four. If you still think it's boring, try it for eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, and so on and so forth. Soon enough you'll find that it's really not boring at all.

learning boring

More quotations tagged with “novelty”

There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know.

—Ambrose Bierce

knowledge novelty

Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.

—Edith Wharton

maturity art novelty

Most advances in science come when a person for one reason or another is forced to change fields.

—Peter Borden

perspective change science novelty

For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news.

—Gloria Borger

news novelty press

The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.

—Arthur Koestler

discovery invention novelty obviousness

History

12 Apr 2014 Added